JcZw

2009-01-01T12:00:00.003+08:00

In view of the new year and of the increasing personal demand for user friendliness, I have moved to a different account where my new year post can be found.

Have so far used the same blog skin for slightly more than 3 years, and have written 517 posts including this one.

Am not discarding this one yet though, am proud of it and may find more use for it yet.

Cheerio, and happy new year

2008-12-28T22:22:00.002+08:00

10.20 in the evening. I'm sitting in my hall room with an unopened file of microB having just moved back in. As far as I know none of my acquaintances are in hall, save maybe for the handballers.

I'm feeling very sian. Something like depressed but not so serious.

Cos the youths in the church which I finally connected to at Church camp are at youth camp (ironically, at Changi Beach Club, the site of the finale of Medicamp), while I have to study.

Cos tomorrow there's a full day of handball and a friendly the day after so I cannot go back to Changi at all.

Cos though I feel my handball's improved, I still lack the height needed to cover the goal effectively and this is still being gleefully exploited and I dunno how to compensate for it.

Cos I know that from now on, the rest of my life is gonna follow a wonky time table which is gonna kick my social life out of the window.

Cos when I start studying Streptococcus I can barely remember what I read for Staphylococcus

Urgh.

Just some very spoilt thoughts from someone who's struck a sudden bout of enviousness of the rest of the world.

2008-12-27T18:15:00.002+08:00

As from today, I've played my most injurious soccer match since Primary 4. Just when I was getting used to pace of intra-fac games, I got a message calling me for a game with the medicine soccer team against some external team. Dunno how many tiers of goalkeepers from Mayank down they had to dig before they got to me heh.

So played for the first time on new artificial turf at VS (the last time I saw it, it was a potholed piece of sand). The first dive already promised the astro burns to follow. I must say though, that not being covered with new layers of mud with each progressive dive was a treat.

The game didn't go well, admittedly. My heart was in my room in hall with my microbiology stuff, and made quite a few mistakes. None of them led to goals, thank goodness, but I must say that I gave the defenders many heart attacks. In retrospect actually things went quite well aside from a free kick with nearly took down the post of the goal. I got a touch but only succeeded in straining my finger which was wrapped in Leukoplast as always.

On the outfield side... well, we were losing in ball in almost every 50-50 situation. So the ball would start quite far up, but would be tackled by an opponent, brought closer, forcing a tackle from our own side, whereupon the ball would spin clear, and almost invariably fall to the feet of an opposing player. Nothing like playing behind ZhengXian, Kevin, Ian, Wenjie and Samuel in the M2s team, who give me a lot more confidence. Oh the outfielders weren't bad, but just not that coordinated.

Caught a long ball into the penalty area, dived at the feet of another player who had the ball, and ran out to kick a loose ball away.

Then an attacker cut in from the wing, outmuscled the defender, and fired into the goal from hmmm 11 meters out. My dive was just a little too slow. An opponent running into the penalty area got brought down by another Medic. The penalty went low to my right. I was reacting and not predicting so again just a little too slow. 0-2

In the second half, a long ball fell to the attacker just inside the penalty area. He took two steps and shot. I dived left, parried the shot, but it still trickled into a corner of the goal.

The 4th goal was the best. A free kick was met by a attacker on the right who headed the ball back across the penalty area to another opponent who took one touch to control the ball. I ran to the left and dived to smother the shot, but hey, it wasn't there already. He'd passed it AGAIN across the goal, or it'd taken a deflection, but it was going into the right corner. When the game evolves such that the opponents can start doing 2-on-1s with you, life's not worth living.

Oh we were scoring too of course, but not quite as many heh.

Then came the clanger 10 min from time. Again, a skirmish at the edge of the penalty box. Again, the Medic was dispossessed. The large white striker turned and unleashed a snap shot on the turn, low and left. Down I went, hands first. Down came the ball, hit the ground, and oh the wicked bounciness of the artificial surface! It rose above my hands and hit me smack in the left eye. Down I went. Down I stayed. Bright lights flashed. Little birds sang. The miniature solar systems orbited in my head.

When I opened my eyes the first word in my mind, incongruously, was "scotomata". This evaporated when I finally found my specs which had been bent into a funny shape (at Parkway later, I found out that the mechanism in the joints had been twisted too so the damage was terminal).

The referee suggested I play without specs. I told him my degree was 900. He couldn't stop chuckling after that. So I played for the last 10 min with funny specs.

When your eyesight is 900 degrees and you don't have good specs, everything's funny. 5 minutes can see you developing a headache.

When your eyesight is 900 degrees and you don't have good specs, your depth perception goes. If I didn't know that the field was completely flat, I would have been wondering whether each line between the light and dark patches of the pitch was flat or ascending or descending. The next drop kick I did was horrendous. Misjudged the height of the ball completely. Possibly the worst mistake of the day.

Well so that ended the game. We didn't win. The margin wasn't big, but it was enough. Later on I discovered that my left orbit had taken the hit too and so the sides were slowly swelling up. Maybe I'll get a black eye like in the cartoons.

What a day indeed.

And on an end note, I just discovered that playing on artificial turf predisposes people to a higher risk fo MRSA infection

2008-12-25T01:03:00.003+08:00

Carolling at Quality Hotel with the church today. I was the only one from my rather expansive family to take part. Even more ironic was that I'm the one with the closest exam =X Infernal bacteria. And their antibiotics.

Much smaller group than last year, but still quite high nevertheless. A lot of people came to watch and to take pictures. And we sang our lungs out heh (No splitting into sections dealing with your own particular range here). On the whole, a good show, and more importantly a good testimony to what we believe in =)

Group pic at the end of the thing.

But the new thing this year was going to the blocks opposite to sing. They were of the older variety, small flats occupied with a variety of people, but mainly the elderly. I'll long remember singing songs like "you yi jian li wu", talking to them, reaching through the grills of the house to shake hands with them. We sang for near an hour straight until our voices all became quite strained. The image of singers nodules floated unwanted into my head.

God bless these people and keep them healthy, even in their immunocompromised days.

Had a more sobering experience on the MRT ride home. Was on the train from City Hall back to Kembangan when a man shuffled into the carriage looking for a seat. I remember him very clearly - brown sandals, olive green Converse satchel, black cap and clutching a box of Ferraro Roche tightly to him. No doubt a Christmas present to someone he cared for. He found a seat and sat down, not a big deal since the train was pretty empty (Because everyone was at parties, according to Dezhi).

A very ordinary scene at this time of the year.

Except his face and arms were criss-crossed with angry nodules and swellings, across his lips and his ears, twisting his fingers. The people who were near him imperceptibly shrank away. The old man next to him looked him up and down. I would be lying if I didn't admit that the sight made me feel uncomfortable myself. I could only think of mycobacteria or hypertrophic scars as a cause. But there you have it. We study about all these terrible things in the textbooks but nothing quite prepares you for the real thing, as we used to discuss back in SJ.

Just an ordinary guy, with his own programme, his own ideas, and definitely, from what he carried, with his own friends and loved ones much like any of us. But a guy whom some might say got a raw deal with life.

It was a harsh reminder of my reasons for wanting to do medicine, and what the job entails. Ultimately, it's for these people whom the various bugs and pathology indiscrimnately attack that we mug.

2008-12-23T14:48:00.003+08:00

I finally understand why in Sec 4 God gave me a nice, but also idiosyncratic, law-abiding teacher-in-charge for my CCA =) 4 years down the line things have worked out for good.

Thank God! Christmas feels happier suddenly. Though microB is still in dire straits.

Now we have been through the harvest
Winter has truly begun
Now we have walked in the chill of the night
We are waiting for, waiting for, for the saviour's day

Many have come from the valleys
Many have come from the hills
Many have started there journey home
To be with someone, with someone, on the saviour's day

Open your eyes on saviour's day
Don't look back or turn away
Life can be yours if you only stay
He is calling you, calling you, on the saviour's day

Joining the old and the young ones
Joining the black and the white
Meeting the need of the hungry is he
Will we ever remeber him on the saviour's day

Open your eyes on saviour's day
Don't look back or turn away
Life can be yours if you only stay
He is calling you, calling you, on the saviour's day

Here's to the God of the present (raise your glasses)
Here's to the God of the past (praise to the king)
Here's to the hope in the future he brings
We will sing to him, sing to him, on the saviour's day

2008-12-22T19:07:00.003+08:00

Isn't life interesting. Just when I thought everything was going smoothly, something jumps out and gives me a hearty smack on the face. Murphy's law 1 Jonathan 0

No matter how hard we try, red tape gets in the way. I don't know why such a simple procedure requires so many levels of authorization. The last time I saw something like that, I was reading "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston. And I'm not even playing with filoviruses. Too much red tape, not enough time. How to finish microB?

Still, there's always a fascination with wondering how God will turn things around and make everything fall into place. Kinda like those feel-good shows when the good guys get into worst and worst situations but you know they're gonna win in the end.

Meanwhile its Deck the hols with bouts of Coxiella-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la and all the other little bugs with disproportionately long names.

2008-12-16T22:22:00.002+08:00

Am now in Holiday Inn Melaka, in the aforementioned state of Malaysia. Life has been good =) A fair share of relaxing, listening to God's words, and studying about gonococcus.

Have limited online so shall stop here. But well, will write more about it another day

2008-12-13T23:14:00.005+08:00

Carolling was fun =) Tiring, but fun. Even though it was a constant battle against "Silent Night" with about only 50% success. But with the preparation leading up to it, and the final culmination in the wards of the hospitals, all other carollings I have done so far pales in comparison! I've never had to take singing so seriously before as I have had to in front of Hanyang's sharp ears.

Thanks to Hanyang and Sean for teaching us the different songs from scratch though!

And the line of the day goes to Daniel Hap for saying "EH! Why the Christmas tree moving by itself!" (there was someone eclipsed by it pushing it along on a trolley tsk).

Sigh besides that, been preparing for church camp. Though I've been looking forward to it, somehow suddenly I feel like I don't really want to tear myself away from Singapore cos there's so much to do. But then, I know that if I stay, I'll still be up to my neck in trainings and all. At least in camp I'll have afternoons off to study MicroB while everyone else is R&Ring. Still, am looking forward to reconnecting with the church people, especially the youths.

Right shall sign off here first. Safe trips to those travelling!

On a side note, I found this song on Youtube. It's impossibly beautiful.

2008-12-11T02:36:00.002+08:00

IHG training started today. In fact, all my hall activities had stuff on one after another. Dead tiring

Feel that I've improved in handball. My reflexes are definitely faster and better at picking off the long shots. But the way people have been training me, at max lunge there are still gaps in the corners of the goal. And other halls are not going to take long to figure that out. Sigh. There must be a better way to do things. The medial aspect of my knee is all scraped and abraded cos I balked at wearing my tracks to the court at 2-blazing-pm. By the time IHG comes I shall have no skin left there.

How hot was it? Well, I have a tan line on my fingers cos the joints were wrapped in tape while the most proximal and distal parts were bare and so are darker. Tan lines. On the fingers. Wow.

Hallplay dinner was fine. Floorball was fun. Long distance shots are becoming more accurate but sometimes I get the sensation I'm playing 10 seconds of good floorball followed by 5 minutes of idioticity.

Carolling pract tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Sometimes I think of singers' nodules when I'm trying to hit the infernally high notes in "Away in a manger".

And just a thought. Studying about antibiotics like erythromycin is just about as distasteful as actually eating it when I was small. Ah memories of my childhood, asthmatic days...

Sigh sometimes I get the feeling that people are expecting more of me yet I'm not delievering as I should.

2008-12-06T19:05:00.003+08:00

In the near future I shall shift to another blog supplier. I'm beginning to think this blog is becoming a bit too messy and that the other supplier is more user-friendly. Maybe this time I will keep it private, then I can really type whatever I want to without fear of reprisal.

Its been a few days which have gone by very fast. The last week was just going to school, accumulating notes and having fun back in hall. Yes, having fun before people move out. For the hols. For good. A friend commented that she felt that a chapter just closed in our lives. I wonder why I agree, considering that the population of medics from our year has already halved since last year. Maybe its because a lot of people are moving out at once, instead of trickling off slowly like last year. Maybe its because we have gotten to know each other a lot more in the past one-half years so every one that leaves is one whom we know quite well. There will be that much less people making noise in the dining hall, that much less people coming for CCAs, supper or whatnot. Just like at the end of JC, there's a sense that things will never again be the same as it used to be.

I wouldn't worry too much about maintaining ties. Once a KEVIIan always a KEVIIan (once owning the jacket, always owning the jacket), and no doubt I'll share the same relationship I do with my friends leaving now as I do with my friends who left after Year 1, a relationship which is not bad (they develop well in their own right). Nevertheless, I treasure the time we've spent in hall and have many fond memories of the days recently passed.

For now I just hope the holidays are productive, yet fun. I will do my duty, but the thought of eating at PGP day after day makes me feel rather ill.

Am quite dinged by the soccer game today. The ground was alternately soft and muddy, and hard and uncompromising. My entire right shin, left thigh and right elbow are badly abraised by sand. Marcus, on seeing the rubor and tumor, excitedly said " You may have Burkholderia pseudomallei! Or maybe Strep pyogenes!" to which I tiredly replied "yes, and pyomyositis from Staph also". Medical students can sometimes be so amusing.

Also had the MCF Christmas party yesterday. Many people, lots of fun, a last hurrah before the hols and the coming CA. Looking around I realise I know so many people in medicine at least by name. And yes, the testimonies did hit deeply, and I found the "We are reason" item incredibly touching and well done. When the pictures of the class and of rag flashed on, it somehow brought home the message closer than any picture of Calvary could.

Yes, a chapter has really closed. We turn now to Hallplay and IHG.

I just hope in the next few weeks I can do my duty and hold fast to what I feel is the right way to go.

2008-12-02T21:09:00.003+08:00

I'm a tad annoyed with one group of people.

I'm highly irritated with another group of people.

And I'm sorry about a third group. For not being aware about your situations and being too selfish and preoccupied with mine. I didn't know you felt this way and thought the situation was different from what it actually is.

Sigh. If only I thought things through a bit more half a year ago. Its like the same mistake I keep making in floorball - committing too early.

Urgh. Too many things, too little time.

2008-11-30T14:17:00.002+08:00

Something which I want to get down before I forget it. Sung in church today.

We see Jesus

For His suffering crowned with glory and with praise

Tasting death for all men by God's grace

Given power to put all things in place

And we see Jesus

Seated at the right hand of the throne

Making intercession for his own

Upholding all things by his word alone

For You are glorious!

Shining victorious over powers and principalities

For You are glorious!

Shining victorious, disarming all your enemies

The rulers of this world beneath your feet are hurled

As you reign, our conquering King

-For You are Glorious

Had a considerably sober end to the week. Feedback session with DO had good points and not so good ones, but credit to Paul, Ray and class comm for making it happen.

Over dinner, we had a uncharacteristically serious conversation first about religion, then on to Schindler's List, war in general, then Liesel asked "Do you all know what's happening in Mumbai" which we didn't cos like the rest of the Hall, we don't really keep up with the newspapers. What she proceeded to describe sounded like a horribly realistic action movie that she had just watched, but no, it was real, and bullets were flying, people were being blown to pieces and hotels were burning at that very moment when the four of us were sitting in the dining hall, fiddling with forks, half empty cups, and listening to her talk, generally aghast.

The thought of civilians, their normal lives suddenly interrupted in a welter of explosions and flying metal just made me cringe. A war with no rules, with people like us right in the middle of it (it could have been a country in which one of us had been doing electives in at that moment)

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if Singapore was dragged into a war right now, at this very moment. If that happened, I wouldn't be under any illusion that being a medical student would prevent us (guys) from being called up as well. As the discussion wore on and we went on to the effects of war, the trauma, death and PTSD which is causes, I was just (rather morbidly) hypothesizing a situation in which I lost my closest friends but never would know the impact until peace came and I could think about it. Once or twice in sec school I did have dreams of friends who died (but, happily, are still alive). They weren't pleasant. If you stop and think of the implications and what ifs, it's kinda scary.

I recall watching live firing in the army, seeing the targets brought back in after the exercise, seen the damage done by a claymore or the detonation of a land-flame mine. Terrible weapons which cause so much damage to wood, plastic and concrete, let alone fragile flesh and bone.

So there I was in the dining hall, thinking morbid thoughts like "yes, what if there was a war?" "what if so-and-so were to die in front of me?" "would I really die for my country? would I do my duty?" etcetc. Terrible. Urgh. And no amount of Whose Line could clear away those thoughts.

The song we sang today really hit home. Every word in the chorus was a response to what I was thinking. Just made me realise that God's in control over all the leaders of the world, both of legal governments and the odd paramilitary deviant fellow who may be plotting his next attack. And truly "the rulers of this world beneath [His] feet are hurled". It made me feel much better and so much more secure while I was standing at my post near the laptop operator during worship today.

God has a knack of speaking right you need it.

2008-11-27T22:50:00.002+08:00

I feel quietly satisfied with the soccer game today though I know I shouldn't. At least part of the one goal was my fault, and it would be unbecoming of a keeper to be satisfied with anything less than a draw. To those who said "it's alright", no, its not. The important thing is to learn from it, that's all.

On to the match proper. The M4s were huge. I mean, huge. Like Ray / Maurice's height with twice the width. These two particular giants had me on my toes everytime they had the ball no matter how far away cos I was just gan jiong. And it paid off too, since the M4s fired in a lot of crosses, which fortunately I and my superb back 4 managed to pick off without too much incident. That said, I think the game against the M1s really boosted my confidence. I felt as though no high ball could outbounce me hahah...

But there was the odd moment of heart pounding excitement too. I will remember the one-on-one for life, where handball skills and reflexes in the short range encounter stood me in good stead. But credit must go to Wenjie for clearing the subsequent loose ball.

Am happy that I got the opportunity to play, and that my confidence has improved ever since the M1 match. See! Shows that with proper training, even the shortest people can be halfway decent goalkeepers. Vindicates me totally from last year's horrendous encounter with KE soccer. But still need to work on the kicking. My legs don't obey the rest of my body.

Also, my first singing (in sections) experience today! Very fun, though the bass section were pretty novice and all of us couldn't sight read =P but yea very fun! Looking forward to more carolling practs

Oh well its been a long day, I'm tired and there's rubor and tumor on my knees where the ground got in the way. Shall sing myself to sleep heh

2008-11-23T16:34:00.002+08:00

When I went to the Selangor Open earlier this year (2 weeks before SPOTS, I remember), I had the dubious pleasure of fencing the coach from NUS. Come to think of it, I'm the only one who has fenced against him competitively in an individual event so far that I'm aware of.

There I was on the strip facing this giant who seemed to be twice my size. On the "allez", he took a ginormous step forward to get priority and that, combined with an arm extension, left his point almost at my chest. I took two controlled steps back, which turned into four quicker ones as he came on like a battering ram. Out flashed the oncoming foil. I did one quarte, but he disengaged and did the flick I was expecting and which I picked off with a prime. Or I wouldn't say picked off. Such was the force of the flick (or should I say, sabre stroke) that my wrist was nearly turned into my forearm. There was no way I could have stopped the follow up attack which hit fairly on my right lower abdomen.

Just like that. One clash of steel on steel, one whirlwind of motion, one flash of the blades and there was one light on the scoreboard. Time elapsed... erm.... 6 seconds?

In retrospect, COFM was like that. Studied one whole round and stuff which I didn't expect all that much comes out hahah...Ah heck. Most exams are anyway

2008-11-22T01:19:00.002+08:00

CA1 is finally over. What a journey it was too. Hopefully everything turns out ok though. Things are mostly looking good except for immuno which went very wrong, but I also don't dare to judge.

With every CA, my studying habits modify and refine slowly to have the greatest work-benefit ratio (kinda like like affinity maturation). To compensate, the subjects get proportionally harder, the memory required increasingly outrageous. Keeps life interesting...

Went out to play Lan for the first time since the sem started with the OG guys. I realised there are so few of us left in the Lan-group nowadays hahah... Cannot even form one infantry section. But it was massively fun. We all hadn't lost our touch, and if anything our coordination was better than ever before heh. Battlefield 2's expansion pack is darn nice. I've always wanted to own an original Battlefield 2 (though dunno when I have time to play also). Wouldn't mind getting an expansion pack either heh. Only thing is that I kept thinking about atropine and organophosphate -_-"'

Coming up on the agenda is buying stethoscopes, PBL and its associated outings =) Also hallplay and IHG training. I find myself not infrequently praying that I'll be able to carry out the duties assigned to me and not annoy or let anyone else down. Hope I've left most of that behind in my more immature years. Must remember not to mind other people's expectations of me, but to stick to my own and to God's.

Oh well its late and I'm tired. Just like to say thanks to the kind souls who have helped and encouraged me through the CA. All the best to you all too as you all take your own papers.

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance, forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

-Those were the days, Mary Hopkins

2008-11-14T22:36:00.003+08:00

"Ye Qu" by Jay Chou is, without question, one of the hardest songs I have ever tried to whistle in my life.

Two weeks into the first CA. Its been a lull and I can't seem to get the momentum back =/ Feel as though every bit of energy was burnt on microB. Results for the above-mentioned came back earlier today, patho a few days earlier. Both did okok, but wish they could be better. I know there were stupid mistakes here and there.

The highlight of the week was probably going to Kbox for the second time in my life with my PBL / anat group. Not that a lot went, but the company was good and we had an absolutely hilarious time before, during and after the thing. Quote of the week goes to Daniel for thinking that Ami had called him a "Hapten" when she had actually said "Captain". Diao. Or as Daniel says, doiing... Had considerable interaction with this group of friends (plus our honorary members KP and Walter) this week cos of Kbox and PDCP which was held yesterday.

I sometimes wonder over the truly miraculous set of circumstances which have brought our anat / PBL group close to each other. The main contributing factors was probably cos a large number of us stayed in hall, and also we came from a few big OGs (1/3 of the PBL group came from Lovelock in Year 1!), so there was great... err... cross-linking heh. Next was the good mix of JCs which prevented you to gravitating to those from your own school. Last but probably most importantly were Profs L, B and N who bonded us considerably with both stick and carrot heh.

Two particular incidents this week left its mark. One was Daniel saying "I can't imagine myself in another group", the second when we were eating lunch before PDCP and were saying that we had to "promise to meet up even during clinical years". I couldn't agree with the first one more, and I certainly would like to keep the second.

Well hmmm I certainly don't know what else to say since my head's full of pharmacokinetics, but its safe to say that I thank God for bringing the people whom he has brought my way so far in med school!

2008-11-08T20:16:00.002+08:00

A short respite before the next set of CAs...

2 weeks to the next set

But over this weekend I shall give myself a good break. If anything I feel absolutely drained by microB and immuno. Just feel like sleeping and sleeping hahah.... Sometimes I feel like my life went on hold for Med Year 2. I've stopped fencing for a long time, and have stopped doing stuff like playing computer too. Now its either Hall or Med, so I'm grateful I have the weekend to putter about at home.

Cleaned my room on Wednesday after Neuro. I opened the file on general microbiology and got reminded that skin scales spread disease. I think that has been the line which I've taken most to my heart in the whole year! So now I can slide around on my room floor and sleep on it when it gets too hot at night =D

Thursday night didn't disappoint. Stayed in my room through lunch and ate cup noodles, and my 5 pm I was so hyperactive and in need of fresh air (even though my doors and windows are always open), so got up with my Virology tables and walked up and down the corridor a few times, to the surprise of Adrian.

By 11 pm I felt so devastatingly drained, my brain so infuriatingly squishy, that I decided to drop everything and join the handball team for the last 20 min of the last formal training. Got there and realised that I had missed quite a lot cos Greg had been teaching new keeper techniques and training =/ oh heck... Of course, moved very slowly during the senior vs junior game cos was pretty worn out, but since I was playing on the senior side, I wasn't troubled too much. But still... how to improve for IHG???

Friday was ok I guess. I just hope I can pass. During the break between the papers a group of us KEVII medics just got into a corner and scared each other with all kinds of things we weren't sure of haha... Think I was too aggressive with the first paper and too scared with the second. Aiyz. Too late anyway.

Had PBL after that. Its so funny watching people's reactions to us having PBL immediately after CA =D but as we said, I don't think we would have agreed to PBL after CAs if our group had not already been pretty close to each other. Met OG and watched Tropic Thunder too, which I must say is one of the most slapstick shows I have ever seen, comparable to, say, Hotshots. Only that it had a lot of crudeness which I didn't appreciate, but oh well, we've all heard our fair share in the SAF, though "we will never be able to curse as fluently as them" according to Sheila haha...

Sigh have been wondering about my future with VCF. On one side there is Medicine, on the other, KE. Been with the latter for a year and already find that I cannot commit the time I would like to too them. Personally I don't think it makes me a worst Christian - I still talk to God and I still read the Bible. I still believe in all the "correct" things. But people seem to judge on how much you do ("How come so-and-so does this-and-this and you don't?" "If so-and-so can do it, why can't you?" [Has it occured to people that I'm NOT so-and-so??]).

Then I start to wonder whether I'm in VCF because I want to, or because people whom I hold in high esteem, an elder sibling, a respected instructor from AHSJAB, is also. Guess these thoughts have been lying latent in my mind for a long time now, its just that recent events have caused them to resurface with a certain measure of frustration. Do I even believe in VCF at all? Either KE or Med or whatever? Is not signing up for the various courses etc a sign of a waning faith?

CAs which have a different definition from other faculties. Academic years which start and end at different times. Lessons which sometimes start at 8. The variable timetable. What is the line between faith and realism? What is the boundary between trusting in God, but also putting in your best?

I had a choice last year: KE or Medicine CF. I guess one way or another, its my own hole that I've dug and I've got to make the best of it.

2008-11-05T13:46:00.002+08:00

Have been spending the last few days holed up in my room reading about various diseases, lesions, general mishaps, as well as listening to Chinese songs. Yes, from one of the Chinese songs I keep in my Youtube favourites, I linked to one random song after another. So I've listened to quite a few, but I can't remember what they're called nor who sang them if they're not Jay Chou.

Patho was reasonable. Don't think I will do too badly. Neuro could go either way, cos I ran out of time, and cos I was gan jiong, I forgot the all my model answers about membranes and just wrote with whatever I had in my head. Yup... so did it autonomically rather than somatically, as it were.

The big M&I is coming up. I really hope the questions are of the same standard that have been appearing in our emails. I SHOULD have a fighting chance then. By that, I mean that I should be able to pass. Of course, there's always the chance that my ego will get the better of me, I will think I know an answer when actually I don't, and I will end up owning myself. The seniors all say that negative marking really catches many many people out. I guess we're about to find out how bad.

Still, the funny thing is that in year 2 I'm motivated to do well, not to just pass, for some personal reasons. And I wonder how to do that...

Last of all, I say again that CAs are inopportunely placed. KE's last handball training is tomorrow night. Am wondering whether I dare to take half and hour off and play in the weekly game tomorrow (i.e. not attend the training but just go and play). And I'm feeling guilty for having such incongruous thoughts. Sigh.

Oh well, shall grab a quick nap and continue.. Cheerio.

2008-11-02T01:04:00.003+08:00

Occasionally I feel indifferent to the CAs. Maybe the seniors have scared me so much that I've given up worrying.

Just had a random thought a week back. If I survive Year 2 and get promoted with reasonable grades while carrying out my duties in hall, this will have been the most fulfiling year of my life. But there's still 4 months to that.

Still, as we know from OCS, 4 months passes way fast... Sigh

The darkest hour is just before dawn (and its scientifically proven)

2008-10-30T20:34:00.004+08:00

Coming up to my 500th post soon... I write a lot. A lot of nonsense. Yes. But well, its MY nonsense so everything's of value to me.

First Aiders in St. John, at least among ourselves who considered ourselves the best of the best, we train and train until we can do all our first aid procedures by instinct. By the time we were sec 4 and went for competiton, everything slide smoothly through our heads, a continuous mantra of "Sir sir, are you ok [as the casualty does not respond... casualty is unconscious], look listen feel, one thousand, two thousand" etc etc.

So much so that when it came to the crunch we were not afraid of approaching a casualty, not one who was sprawled over the steering wheel of his car gasping for breath, nor another who got hit a glancing blow in the head by a shotput during sports day. Neither did this instinct let me down when some nut played a prank on me which involved pretending to have a rather serious medical condition.

Of course, now in Medicine, things are not so clear cut. Our simulated casualties would never present with purpura and necrosis due to Neisseria meningitidis (too difficult to apply makeup, for one thing), nor proctitis due to N. gonorrhoea or however its spelt (unethical to do checkup in the middle of a hall during competition).

My point is, despite having most of our trainings being geared to win competitions, first aid was still branded into our souls, our instincts, reflexes, and until now I still occasionally learn something in medical school which makes me realise why I had to do what I was trained to do in first aid.

Extrapolating that, I wonder whether it is possible to do the same for values. To have your own morals and values seared into your soul so that when the crunch came, you would act instinctively, less out of thinking, but more of an ingrained sense of "this is AUTOMATICALLY wrong". I can't help thinking that the world would be a much happier, and dare I say, honourable, place if we could achieve this level of integrity with ourselves, such that we wouldn't spend time rationalizing our actions but would keep to our values.

By this I don't mean a perfect world, where no mistakes are made. Mistakes are, of course, mistakes. What I would like to avoid are situations which you know would lead you into trouble, but at the very moment that the decision must be made, you're confused utterly by a storm of emotions and cell signals which clogs up your cognitive functions like a immune complex in a renal vessel, brings you down the wrong path and bang, you've given yourself a lot of headache.

I've done it. If you're reading this, you might have done the same too. Sometimes when I can't sleep, and my mind is racing, I think about how I could have had so much happier a life if I hadn't been blinded by an misplaced sense of honour or commitment. Or sheer stupidity.

Sigh.

Anyway, it rained last night.

Silly camera doesn't do justice to the weather actually haha..

The heaviest rain I've had since I came to KE. I was having a fitful sleep, dreaming a rather incongruous dream about my PBL group, when there was a crash and my blinds got blown into my room. I woke up with a bang thinking a swarm of flying creatures had attacked me, and having a mental image at the back of my mind of inverted heart valves.

It was pouring. In almost solid sheets. In fact, G block, which I think I could hit with a water bomb if I chose to in good weather, looked so far away, and PGP was almost obscured. When I headed out to go to the toilet I couldn't see the faint outline of the satillite dish until the lightning lit up the area like one of Kokpun's diabolically bright flashes. The drains outside the E block lounge were solid columns of white water and for the hundredth time I wondered when E block would fall on F block.

But all in all the weather was nice. Even the night scenery. I put on my specs for about 5 min to watch the rain swirling in the wind, and watching the lightning flashes (shades of OCS!). But I had school the next day so couldn't stay up for long. Closed my windows and dropped off back to sleep.

The impending CAs are making me write random stuff... Shall make another attempt to reach Nerdvana before the night is out..

2008-10-27T13:38:00.002+08:00

In the midst of absorbing Herpes, HIV, Dengue and all the other "Nasty little bugs" as Prof Taylor would say, I've also been expelling fluid of different hues and viscosities from my facial orifices. Amidst the rather disturbed sleep (with vivid dreams) that I've been having, I've noticed two things:

1. I've never been sick so often in my life

2. I've never studied for such a sustained period in my life

These two events can't be related can they?

But battling headache and general malaise and coryza (a lot of people seem to be complaining about this coryza thingy... but no fever, thank goodness), I feel burnt out, as though I started studying too early in the year and now my engine's running out of fuel just when I need it most.

Sigh. That's me being whiney.

2008-10-24T00:49:00.002+08:00

Took a break of patho and Robbins and looked through last year's Medicamp pictures. I still remember the dates 16th July 2007, probably will for a long time yet.

Never looked through the pictures properly, mainly cos I hardly knew anyone. Only those from my OG. The few army friends I had were scattered too far and wide through the photos for me to make a realistic search for them.

But after one year (and almost an additional half), and getting to know a tremendous amount of people (especially through THIS year's Medicamp), I realised I knew most of the people in the pictures in the end, was able to laugh at this or that person's expression now that I knew him / her better. True, some of them I only know by sight, but better than nothing.

Still, its truly amazing how far we've all come, from various backgrounds and JCs, now all spun and oriented down this focused path on the way to becoming a doctor, an intravasation that was not easy, to be sure, but one that I'm grateful for. Amazing how after one short year, a few bursts of stress and a few more fun, every month, perhaps every week, there are new people whom I can say hi to in the LT.

Well, shall shove off now. After one week of lack of sleep, I can feel a prodrome of sore throat coming on.... NOOO!!! Don't fall sick now!!!

2008-10-18T17:10:00.002+08:00

Handball FMS today. It was a much bigger thing than last year's, with each level sending a team.

It was also a terribly hot day. I could feel it when I walked down to SRC from KE, already warming my legs below my tracks.

Our team consisted of a wide variety of players, from the towering Bingyi, to the stocky Keith and the lean mean Ben Ding whom I must say saved our necks more than a few times. We had a good mix of players alright. It was pretty interesting, actually, how we could see how each team had its own style of playing.

M1s: The Young Upstarts. Full of energy, dashing here and there, bouncing off the defenders and off the floor. All spectacular moves and to be sure the Team To Beat. But they started out slowly, hadn't gelled and with our team still being fresh, our defences were strong, almost airtight. Ben duly delievered on the other side, with Keith and Xizhen adding their contributions. M2 5 - M1 2

M3s: The Long Distance Shooters. The M3s didn't penetrate our defence a single time. Not once did they reach the 6 m line. But shooters like HanJie with screaming, swerving balls fired THROUGH the defenders played merry hell with the short M2 goalkeeper (guess who). We finished the second half tied at 3-3 (Ben had applied his own hat trick at the other side of the field on HuiJin, my senior also from KE) and went into sudden death.

It was at this crucial juncture where I made the most vital save in my entire life, though it wasn't the glamest. The M3s did a wave and had a free man on the right flank. If he had taken two steps to the front he wouldn't either have been at point blank range or he could also have been closed down, so predictably, he let fly from about 7 meters out. I was ill positioned to throw myself out of the goal and so ended up throwing myself ACROSS the goal instead,increasing the distance I had to cover.

The ball thumped into my left finger and my third finger took the shock o_0. Lucky the buddy support with the 4th finger worked fine and I JUST turned the shot around the post.

The deadlock was eventually broken when Ben broke and went one-on-one with HuiJin and converted. M2 4 - M3 3

3. M4s. Fast breakers. We were so close, but were denied by the only team who's profile I didn't know so well. The M4s, having just finished THEIR half hour break were in a much fitter state, whereas we had just finished gruelling match with our seniors. It was 11 am, and the sun was blazing hot.

And to make matters worst, they played fast breaks, which suited them far more than it did our battle-weary team. 4 times they broke, 4 times they converted, putting the game away at 4-2, Xizhen pulling back a good goal at the last minute which their keeper didn't even deign to save haha.

For the record, let me say that two crucial refereeing errors went against us. And while true, we were subject to the same referee, I couldn't help feeling that this was a game where fouls were given according to "feel" by the referee rather than cold knowledge of what fouls should be given what penalties.

While we had been plodding along with our tournament though, M1s had beaten M4s in their match. Which meant we had beat our juniors who had beat our seniors who had beat us. But the M1s had the superior goal difference which means they went to the finals, where they didn't disappoint and beat the M5s.

Was pretty irked by the manner of our loss since we were so close to going into the final. But realised while refereeing the latter that actually I was also pretty tired. In fact by the end of the match I just wanted to go somewhere and fall asleep heh. So I did, back in KE.

Well its been a momentous day. And thanks to my classmates, I had quite a lot of fun! We'll go to MUNUS next year and kick some people's backsides =) But for now, neuro anat, with its nucleuses, tracts and columns await.

2008-10-16T23:29:00.002+08:00

Have missed out a lot of things that have happened in the last few weeks cos have no inspiration to blog... Shall just scribble (metaphorically speaking) down some stuff...

Run for Hope. Ran 10 km, finished in 1 hour 1 minute with 4 mouthfuls of water. Unfitness. Am not suited for running long distances... a full 11 minutes off the 5 min/km mark set in OCS. I think I hadn't sweated so much for a long time. My VJ shorts hadn't been subjected to so much fluid since I got thrown into the sea during VJ orientation hoho... Super high event. At least it was until I finished 7 km... I know 10 km is no kick to my other siblings and many people in medicine, but oh well...

PHS. Got to do the coveted CBG, had to poke 3 people twice and another poor fellow three times. But didn't get scolded. My hand was shaking like free for the first few. Wonder what the aflicted said people thought about me.

The Science Library. Touched it twice for the second and third times in my life this week. Pretty fulfilling. I pushed past what I thought I could endure and overloaded on viruses. But dunno if I can retain (Bad choice of words there I think). There are too many itis-es.

Intra fac games have been occupying a lot of my time this week. M2 lost soccer 3-4 to M1 on Monday. But am satisfied with my performance. Have a lot to improve on especially catching crosses. Jumping is all important - when I shook hands with the M1s after the match, all of them were taller than me except CunZhi. The ironic thing is that the M1s only had one short on target when I was in the goal (which I saved comfortably), but I totally didn't see the goal which I conceded coming.

Had a short training with 5 others at the handball court today for this saturday's game. Keith is a really good keeper, ultra fast with his hands. I would get him to play except the same upper limbs are needed for shots at the opponent's goal and also my footwork's slightly better. If we could merge my lower limbs, his upper limbs and get someone taller to volunteer a torso then we'll be in good shape!

There MUST be a way to cut one second off a dive to the ground or to the upper corners in handball! And I've three months to find that before IHG!

2008-10-12T16:54:00.003+08:00

Am now typing this using my sister's cool foldble keyboard... when i first saw it in Die Hard 4 I didn't quite believe it... thought it ws all part of the improbable nature of the show. But oh well, it seems to be quite nice to use, also one must get use to the squishiness of the keys.

The last week was busy. By the end of the week I was tired and more irritable than usual. Now that CAs are coming I shall try and sleep earlier though... Was just contemplating how people in this world can be so judgemental and how we ourselves in turn can be the same. People judge you if you come late for CCA / pon CCA / are lousy in your CCA, but then again when you go to the other extreme and sacrifice your sleep going for CCA and end up sleeping in class, people judge you as well. Heh. A bit deeper thinking than I usually do.

At the same time, with training for the intra-fac games going on, I'm wondering why there seems to have been a phase where every guy in the world learnt to play soccer and I didn't. Why I learnt how to play idiosyncratic things like handball and fencing, but not more classically-guy sports like soccer and basketball

This train of thought considerbly blackened my mood throughout the week until Friday, when various interactions with my Anat Group brought me considerably more cheer.

On bus 92 on the way back home yesterday, I was just thinking about my Anat group and that made me realise that actually I do have a lot to be grateful for, not the least the people around me (even though it may comprise of the judgemental parties). Its just that its very hard to remember the encouragement, the kind deeds that people have done for you when you're fatigued, hypersenstitive, and get irritated at the couple getting off the MRT escalator in front of you,PDA-ing so much that they don't clear the escalator fast enough and you have to squeeze around their entwined beings so that you and the rest of the people behind you don't pile up behind them like the start of the 1998 Belgium Grand Prix.

I'm grateful that I'm structurally whole, enough to take a handball hit to the ribs and shrug it off.
That I'm mentally capable, enough to survive a year of medschool.
That my psychomotor skills are intact, enough to learn how to drive.
That I've a whole family and relatives, whose members would send me for a run at 6.30 in the morning, or who would bake biscuits for me to book into OCS with
That I know a whole lot of KEVIIans, enough that I can find people to talk to at 1 am in the morning when I need to
That I have my OG, who would wait 4 hours past their sleeping time just to celebrate my birthday with me
That I have my Anat / PBL Group, a social group whom many would not consider close friends, but who to me are as close as the next
That I have my church friends, who have an uncanny instinct to send encouraging SMSes just when I need them.

And when one thinks back, a whole list of other things come to mind, from living in Singapore to the nasty SJ seniors who hammered me into my present character

There. That's better already. And hopefully I can hang on and remember these more often as we punch our way through intra-fac games, the Hallplay red tape and the impending CAs

2008-10-05T18:08:00.003+08:00

Often I've heard people talk about hating the toilets in hall, how they're too hot, too cold, too stinky, too flooded, how people miss to the front, miss to the rear (what the..), don't wash hands when using the handle etc.

Fortunately for the past year and a half, I've had pretty good toilets with pretty good toilet users. All of us are more or less civilised in the use of the commodes and are quite clued up about hygiene. Thankfully, I haven't had any close encounters since I left my company line in BMT, besides once when the F1 toilet released sewage across itself (though AHS had me used to that before). Unfortunately sometimes it's just the hardware that lets us down.

So there I was on Saturday afternon sitting on the toilet contemplating lunch and the upcoming PHS. The particular bowl which I was using wasn't exactly popular, as it had a sticky flush. That is, when depressed, the flush would go down and not come up again, causing a continuous flow of water into the bowl. A noise pollutor and, to any Singaporean, a total waste of water. But as I said, nothing worrying. At the moment there was the sound of water pouring into the cistern, cos somehow the balls (the floats) and springs and levers which control the water level did not provide negative feedback. Pretty much normal for the F2 toilet.

Then suddenly there was a ROAR of released water and fluid sprayed all over my feet. One of the worst things is to get cold fluid on my feet, and if there hadn't been someone in the next [working] cubicle (which was why I was using this slightly not so operable one) I would have screamed blue murder. As it was, my mind was going "WTHeck!" as I launched myself uncerimoniously through the cubicle door and out from the rapidly flooding cubicle. A few sniffs did allow me to ascertain that the fluid was, in fact, water, and not sewage as I had first feared. I could not see the source of the leak, but opening the cistern, I could see it was draining really fast.

With visions of Glen dismantling the toilet in Kyoto, and determined to be equally good with my hands, as well as to save F1 from drowning, I was determined to turn off the flow of water into the cistern, even though I didn't really appreciate having to go back into the thing. Locating the main faucet and turning it just took a little while and a lot of strength.

So ends one of my more significant encounters with the KE toilet. Still, not as bad as FM's one, where one pull of the chain and the cover of the overhead cistern would come crashing down towards your head

2008-09-30T01:06:00.002+08:00

Back into the deep end. As my friends become happier that their ORD draws near, the nerves in LT29 are pulled tighter.

The day started fairly well and ended fairly well too, though my initial enthusiasm died down just before dinner when I succumbed to Sudden Acute Sleeping Syndrome aka SASS, a condition which medic KEVIIans are predisposed to.

The lectures on the morning were fairly stimulating, COFM too since I was arrowed to present stuff. Celebrated ThengWai's birthday too.

Had lunch at Coffeegrounds for the first time. Nothing special, but did get a good meal. Had an absolutely hilarious exchange with Glen, the subject matter of which included F1, pit stops, refuelling and (rather incongruously), catheters. Am pretty gratified that suddenly almost everyone's an F1 fan =) Though of course, I'm very happy to have started earlier and witness great races like the Belgian GP in 2000 etc.

This was followed by a rather more sobering conversation about... hmm... rival medical schools and... err... various financial blackholes, so to speak.

After dinner at night the day suddenly degenerated when I accidentally walked into the latch of the door, which was pointing vertically out, stabbing my deltoid (axillary nerve, if i remember, affected by fractures of the surgical neck of the humerus), and depriving me of pain-free abduction of that arm. Which was kinda a pity cos floorball was later on.

Discovered I could wield a floorball stick with just my right arm, but very unstably at that. I'm sure if it was a good move, it would have been invented long ago. But still, with the holiday and no handball training, it should recover by tomorrow. Speaking of which, I need to find time to run before Sunday.

Life is busy. Sigh.

2008-09-27T14:18:00.003+08:00

Time to do a sane one...

Formula 1 has come to Singapore! I'm really excited over the whole weekend hahah and having a GP here just about gives me as much national pride as being in OCS did... I still remember watching my first grand prix (1999, Mangy Cours in France) and watching the red Ferraris and silver Maclarens duelling two against two. Though now, of course, almost anyone could win.

Then I remember asking my father how come Singapore didn't have a GP if it was so hot after watching the Monaco street circuit for the first time and he said that its cos the roads would be jammed up while the circuit's prepared... Which it was haha but oh well... As a F1 fan, the sheer novelty of having a night race alone is fantastic already! Not to mention as a Singaporean heh.

The crowd on the way home, though, was terrible. Absolutely Japan-esque if you ask me. A crowd of about 10 people with a rather strong collective body odour deigned to squeeze into a space designed for 2, amidst much yelling and laughter, which irritated me no end because it wasn't funny and because, weighed down by bag and laptop, I took the brunt of the assault. I mean, come on, common sense right... Even the centre was full and I had absolutely no where to go. So I just dug in my heels, stood my ground and let the wave of people break on either side of me. Unfortunately this meant that I was now in the MIDDLE of this crowd of people with a rather strong collective body odour who were STILL yelling and laughing (what was so funny???). I have a theory that there are many irritating people in the world and somehow a lot of them are always present in the MRT stations when I am there.

I think everyone was headed for the city centre (including some europeans whom I overheard say "hey at least its not as bad as C hin@") so the usual 1 hour trip home took me 1 hour and 40 minutes. If I'd have known better I would have come back in the morning.

Besides F1, however, has been the scare about melamine. Oreo wafer sticks were affected, which kinda scared me cos I have a pack of mini oreos in my room, but given that they ARE mini, and also that I'm not a baby, I shall continue eating them judiciously until proven otherwise. Besides which, I've been getting regular updates from my family what not to eat. My personal list, unfortunately, contains many of the KEVIIans staple food in hall, including bubble tea and cheap biscuits. At the moment I only truly trust the high-end american biscuits (expensive), potato chips (unhealthy) and guava (which I've been eating a lot of heh)

The holidays have been a good opportunity to meet up with various groups of people, which have included my OG, my anat group, and later tonight, my JC class. So did manage to get the "break" component into the week heh. At the same time, most people seem to have used the hols to accelerate towards in CAs in about 5 weeks time, and so I've had to do obligatory work too =P

I kinda like immuno and patho, but dislike the ambiguity which surrounds the statement "students will be tested on appropriate information from textbooks" or whatever it was. Which means anything I guess... Oh well...

Right shall stop here for now and continue perusing prof abbas...

2008-09-25T03:21:00.002+08:00

Its 3.21 am, I have a date with my Japan trip group people at 1230 pm, and I'm still awake, not to mention totally incoherent.

Tried summarizing the first few chapters of abbas into a nice set of notes and nearly paid for it with my sanity. But at least its forever burned into me that IL-4 promotes change of IgM to IgE, IL-12 activates NK-cells and IFN gamma has everything to do with macrophages.

The break's whizzing by very fast. Deadlines are whipping past like bugs on an Australian expressway, and I desperately would like some time to do my own thing... You know, sit around, watch olympic fencing videos, actually GO AND FENCE, go for a cycle from my house to Changi Village, drink the fruit juice, come back... totally random.

Instead, I sit in my room, tap on laptop, try to figure out what the bug on the cover of my immuno textbook is supposed to be, and think of witty things to say to people who are presently causing slight bits of irritation in my life...

Thank God for the friends, next door, next block, next wing. For those online, and of course, the family members who are one phone call away.

2008-09-17T14:03:00.002+08:00

The Influenza Virus:

Symptoms:
Fever, myalgia, malaise
Rhinorrhoea and sneezing
Sore throat and dry cough

Complications:
Pneumonia (primary pneumonia giving high mortality)
Infection by: streptococcus pneumoniae, haemophilus influenzae, staphylococcus aureus

Well, that's nice. My symptoms fit influenza and the complications don't make me very happy. On the other hand, my symptoms also fit that of the preliminary phase of an acute HIV infection heh...

Hopefully its clearing up soon. I want to use mid-sem break for something other than recovering.

2008-09-15T18:45:00.002+08:00

The battle is on in full force. One of us is gonna crack and it ain't gonna be me. Yet here am I having just learnt that 1.2 kg of my weight is bacteria and there are 5 times more microbes in my body than human cells.

The flu hits for the third time in 4 months. What's wrong with me? I'm sick of having to buy lozenges, of having to hop from tissue source to tissue source and making sure my bottle's always more than half full.

Am gonna miss floorball training later probably. Running now will probably give me endocarditis. Or something. Sighhh... Talk about general malaise. And there's handball and all the rest tomorrow, not to mention a pile of pharmaco to catch up on.

And I think I just cross-infected someone right in front of my eyes in the dining hall =( sighh

I can just imagine the narrator in the immuno video going "But things are going to get much worst".

Come on, T-cells and B-cells... do your stuff... This body has too many things piling up to afford to fall ill...

2008-09-13T15:45:00.004+08:00

Some game which Chen Kok Pun, Publications Committee Head, KEVII Hall has gotten me to do, so do it I must haha...

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their
blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they got tagged and to ask them to play and
read your blog.

Starting time: 1550 hrs

Name: Jonathan
Sisters: 1 elder
Brothers: 1 younger
Shoe Size: 10
Height: 167cm
Where do you live: Somewhere in Kembangan, mostly in KEVII Hall,

Favourite drinks: Water chestnut and sugar cane, but hey anything's nice when you're thirsty
Favourite breakfast: Anything but pau, lo mai kai and chee cheong fun. Had multiple traumatic breakfasts involving them in OCS
Have you ever been on a plane?: Yup
Swam in the ocean: Never more than 10 meters from shore.
Fallen asleep at school: Oh the tales my classmates could tell you about that...

History lessons
Broken someone's heart: Possibly
Fell off your chair: Oh not too long ago really... Track back to SPOTS 2008
Sat by the phone all night waiting for someone to call: Yea
What is your room like: Nice and cosy! Building your own mess around you but keeping it in order is strangely satisfying

What's right beside you: Mama Robbins + phone/matric.card/key on lanyard on it
The last thing you ate: Pizza at PGP
Ever had chicken pox: Yup
Sore throat: Wow who came up with this questionnaire
Stitches: Hope I never need them
Broken nose: Heh not yet. Maybe its a matter of time with handball
Do you believe in love at first sight: Yes
Like picnics: Same as KP

Who was, were the last person you danced with: Julia, CIP @ Pelangi Village. Mas' fault!!!!
Last made you smile: Matilda telling me about her ideas for being a Pubs Comm columnist
You last yelled at: Probably Melvin Tan, about something or other hoho

Today did you:
Talk to someone you like: Of course. If it weren't for them I would already be insane
Kissed anyone: Nope
Get sick: No, but I bet I'm immunocompromised
Talk to an ex: Don't have one
Miss someone: That's why I'm booking out of hall soon.
Eat: Yup

Best feeling in the world: Knowing God's in control
Do you sleep with stuffed animals: Nope. Probably trigger my asthma
What's under your bed: Dust, a shoebag and shinpads for soccer
Who do you really hate: I don't hate people. I pity their unintelligence

What time is it now?: 1559 hrs

5 things I was doing 10 years ago

1. 4/4, Kong Hwa School
2. Assistant Sixer, Cadet Scouts
3. Learning @#%$% piano
4. Learning @#%$% art
5. Chinese tuition

5 things on my to-do list today:

1. Pharmaco
2. Catch up on sleep
3. Hallplay
4. Dig out fencing videos
5. More pharmaco

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Pretzel pieces
2. Kokpun's raisins
3. Biscuits which haven't lau hong-ed
4. Chips, same as KP
5. Anything my sister bakes

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Don't
2. Think
3. It'll
4. Happen
5. Really

5 of my bad habits:
1. Sleeping late
2. Sleeping all over the place
3. Banging into hard objects
4. Whistling loudly
5. Eating unhealthy stuff while studying

5 places I have lived in:
1. Jurong East
2. Bedok North
3. My House, Kembangan
4. KEVII Hall
5. Windy Heights, Kembangan

5 people I tag:
1. All
2. In
3. Good
4. Time
5. Lar

2008-09-11T00:55:00.002+08:00

My noticeboard in hall is bordered by pictures.

One of my siblings and I in front of our house

A line with everything Medical related:
My OG celebrating Glen's birthday
KEVIIan medics on our food trail
Anat Group 1 on our cycling trip
Bombini near the Changi jetty
and another of them celebrating my birthday

My JC Class:
The collage I made of them
Our "proper" class photo
Post As at Billy Bombers, Marina Square

Everything about fencing:
One of the VJ team, another of the girls team which I helped to coach last year
Me handing Candice her wire during Novices 2006
And of course, me fencing

And finally, St. John:
The three teams I served with: My own beloved AA team, now scattered to various offshore islands, camps and ships
James' AC team
Huiling's NC team
And the picture of the division marching during NDP.

But aside from the first two categories, everything seems so far away. Anglican High seems like a distant memory, though I'd have never dreamt that it would be this way. Even when I was taking Bio S late into the Friday evenings in VJ, I'd always manage to make it to see my juniors occasionally. But now with the camps scheduled in March, handover taking place outrageously early and all, I have precious little time to know them. Not to mention how the age gap is drawing further and further apart. To next year's sec 1s, I'll already, legally, be an adult.

Sigh, sometimes when I'm in my room chionging stuff (especially immunology), I glance at the pics and for a couple of seconds, recall the sights and smells of the old parade square, how the dust would be churned up and cover our boots during division drill, the old corridor which used to run along its periphery, and how I walked into one while talking to Evelyn-the-squad-1-IC.

I remember how we used to run down to the D&T block after CCAs and spend an hour or two changing, talking, and arguing about where to go and eat.

The pumpings till our hands blistered. How once we were made to do knuckle pumpings on the razor sharp rocks cos we fidgeted.

How I walked through the NDP contingent in Sec. 4, everyone decked out in their ceremonial attire with cummerband and marching gloves. A quiet word of encourgament to Clarice, WenBin and Wong Liting, an exchange of insults with Wei Lun, a sarcastic remark to XuanMing about the state of his boots, a wave to Soo Yee in the flag party, a thumbs up to Joanne, my contingent 2IC, and finally, the terse "Follow me" to Jonathan, Jack and Benjamin who were the lead members of the contingent.

Then there is my JC and everything which came with it. Thank God for being able to meet up with individual classmates every now and again, and of course, for the two classmates (and one SJ friend, lest I forget) whom I see everyday! But for the most part, my JC friends are also in the army, or occupied with their own courses.

Recall walking to the Esplanade with Enjie in our run up to prelims, and how we vowed that we would never eat a Macdonald's breakfast again in our life (which we broke soon after we went to NS).

Braving the rain at Gelare which have rendered my deck of playing cards highly dog-eared. AND still eating the cold ice cream after that!

Sharing a rosti with ChuaH and Dory at Marche one day when our senior class invited us out.

Squeezing into the little holes in the IP classroom

Getting water sprayed at me by Liling at Neptune Court.

Laughing our heads off at each other's PW presentation, and playing Battlefield: Vietnam in my house while preparing the same. Making the video of so-and-so hahahahah (you know who you are!) to the tune of "She will be loved".

Memories which once seemed near now seem distant, though I hold them all the more valuable for that. Now I barely have time for my own activities. Almost every day ends late and those that don't are occupied with still more stuff. I love the things that I'm studying, and surely appreciate immunology more than biochem, but I wish I just had the time to go back to my schools this Teacher's Day season to say hi again. A friday, if possible, for AHS since it is then that my juniors are present. See that distinctive black and white uniform again maybe hahah... Preferably with a bunch of friends with which I can hobnob to too... But oh well, given the time table for the next few days, it looks like wishful thinking.

Meanwhile, shall attempt to thrive on COFM like HIV on a T-cell...

2008-09-04T00:38:00.005+08:00

Quote of the day:

Listening to Jay Chou songs is like the action of memory cells. You listen one time, then after a long time you listen again, you will feel like... [struggles for words with great emotion on his face]... HWAAAA!
-Daniel Chan, PBL Group 1

heheh. What would I do without each unique character in my PBL / Anat group. I'm darn sad I'm separated from there during pharmaco tutorial =( even though they did sabo me all the time throughout last year heh

Life has kinda shaken out and I'm achieving an equilibrium between recreation and studying. The new academic year comes with a new sense of responsibility, after having such a hard time with Biochem last year. Watching batchmates get retained also grounds one in a sense of mortality that "hey it can happen to anyone". What's worrying was that I felt ok about a subject my classmates feared like the plague (although its not like I did that well at that one), but wasn't good at one which many people were ok about.

So this equilibrium comes skewed towards studying. Yes, I have a higher basal level of mugging this year, but I hope to goodness I'm studying in the correct way. 6 subjects seems so much, which makes the nonchalence displayed by our seniors highly disturbing.

On the more cheerful side of the coin (or not), hall activities are picking up, which provide a welcome diversion. Work in hallplay is gathering speed, which I have incentive to do or my life in practicals next to my producer will become highly unconduscive for living heheh.

Am picking up a new sport in floorball. Feels very awkward to me... Interception and blocking feel natural, but running and passing, not to mention shooting, feels highly unnatural. Probably cos I've spent most of my sporting life using the reflexes gained in fencing to be a keeper. Goalkeeping = 2 dimensions: In the field or in the net. As an outfield player, having opponents coming at you from any number of angles in the 360 deg sphere around you is highly disconcerting. But well, the people there are friendly, especially my experienced trio of classmates, my juniors, and seniors like Musa. So shall try to pick up a sport as a running player for once heh... Training's been pretty fun n makes me want to continue going back!

Handball and pubs comm officially start tomorrow. Let's see how things go from there. Dear God help me balance, fulfil my duties, and enable me to turn assignments down when I have to.

2008-08-31T14:31:00.003+08:00

DnD was everything I expected it to be. I must agree with the school of thinking that Year 2 is the best time to go for DnDs since its the right balance of freedom plus experience. You know how far to go and more importantly, the people around you well enough to have fun =) Combined cost of the function as well as the costume came up to more than one China foil blade, but well, if only for the memories it was really well spent!

Thanks should also go to such people as Shaun Chan, whom I know worked his brains out for DnD even after finishing an ardous rag tour, as well as lesser-known personalities such as Ruth who came up with the very creative posters =)

I was expecting a few of the profs to turn up too since some did last year. I wonder what Prof B ay would have thought of me last night though heh.

Went over to the Hilton with Adrian, Xiao Shuang and Kok Pun from hall. Very minor point except the taxi which brought us there scared the living daylights out of me by E-braking to avoid running a red light, while he was about 60 km/h at 4th gear on a wet road. The wheels locked and the tyres screamed on the asphalt and I was preparing for a skid or something. But the experienced Mr Taxi Driver managed to stop safely, albeit crossing quite far across the white line...

Well DnD was nice, with considerable interaction with people all over, Lakota and Bombini, KEVII, Anat / PBL group, VCF, M2 soccer, VJC, AHSJAB, Tango Wing, various friends made in Medicamp etc, all decked out in costumes of considerable gallantry and elegance, may I add. Such functions make me wonder at how many new friends I've made since I came into Med last year (when I knew more people from the army in Medicine than my own friends from VJ). There was also the obligatory MC (I think such people are paid to make bad jokes and suan people... how fun), and a LOT of phototaking haha...

I need to make special mention for my hat, which Charlene said looked like a samosa. Samosa or not, it was the favourite part of my costume, and I must say, it was almost everyone's favourite part as well, judging by how people stole it to wear during photo taking heh. It also forced everyone to give me a safety clearance though, or risk a hat in the eye (or in the case of Daniel and Bing, in the chest).

Shall just put up a few pictures of the night.

Possibly the most important person of the night: The counsellor's counsellee! In this case, Adrian and Adrian's Candle. M1, Bombinian, KEVIIan and F-blocker, here's to a nice working relationship!

Jiayi and Jiayi's Parrot, which eyed the superior lobe of his left lung throughout the night. It looked like it was going to peck out his heart.

The three Aristocratic Gentlemen

The YunTun of WeiLun, the ShuiJiao of Jiayi and the Samosa of Jonathan

The Queen and her Consorts picture, which all of us like. The colour combination is excellent! And Moses' hair really makes him look the part heh

Anat Group 1. Again, a nice colour combi! Unfortunately after this was taken then I realised that we had missed out Shaun, HuiZhong, Jade and Joanna who were at other parts of the hall.

And last but not least Lakota / Bombini or Bakota if you'd like it that way... How the relationships have grown since those beginning days in the chalet in Changi... Thanks Hanlong for standing on the chair for ages patiently snapping away with the different cams though!

Well, that should be it for now... Will post more on Facebook, or not (since there are already a ton of albums there).... Those whom I owe photos please MSN me after I go back to hall!

2008-08-27T22:54:00.002+08:00

So, night cycling. One night when I was back to the days of doing Public Duty at sports days, Chingay, Christimas Carnival, even an NUS Open House in SRC (though then I didn't know my NUS landmarks well).

The first aid team was pretty competent, consisting of ChiaHui, ThengWai, McVin and I. The former 3 were all in the safety vehicle while I was cycling ("I want to be in the car too!" said I. "No, we need people on the ground", insisted ChiaHui). Kokpun also learnt first aid, which was just as well since he would be far away from me during cycling as it happened.

As ChiaHui said, I had the familiar "I want people to have fun but I don't want people to get hurt" feeling as they were setting off, though admittedly, first aiders have a morbid thrill when things actually do occur since it means they didn't turn up for nothing. In fact, KEWOC had done a good job of packing little portable first aid kits which were ideal to carry around.

As it was, and as I kinda expected, all the casualties occurred during the first part of the cycling. What I didn't expect to happen was that they would occur within ONE HOUR of each other, and in groups at extreme ends of the pack. It meant I did a lot of extra (and stressful!) cycling in the first hour and was very tired cos of that. Also a little annoyed cos the FAider distribution wasn't very good and meant that I didn't get much of a break at AHS' famous Blk 85 bak chor mee stall heheh...

But nevertheless, as always, I have to remember that it was little incidents occuring in first aid duties like these which inspired me to take up medicine in the first place. To have the confidence to carry out treatment for cuts big or small, burned into one's hippocampus by the tekans, pumpings and stuff is something I value very much =)

May I also say that the quick-response team of my two fellow M2s and 1 NSF medic spec, together with the KIA car was also very efficient and invaluable at providing the odd rush to CGH A&E when circumstances called for it.

So it was a darn tiring night, the first time I stayed awake from sundown to sun up (even in SJ camp usually I sleep about 1/2 an hour). In the morning my brain felt rather numb so I guess its a good thing no one got injured then. Had my first MacDonald's breakfast in a pretty long time, though I must say the Big Breakfasts are not as Big as they used to be....

Then it was back to KE by 8.45 am to sleep till 3 pm =D my sleep cycle got fouled up for the rest of the weekend and hasn't been restored till today haha..

Night cycling was certainly a rather novel experience!

2008-08-23T15:53:00.002+08:00

Many many things transpired since the last time I wrote here. Shall just touch on everything briefly. The last week was hellishly busy, n I was playing sports every day since Friday. Am very grateful that I'm still alive and in one piece =)

1. The 2008 Asian Varsity Fencing Championships was pretty good, arguably my best foil tournament. Unfortunately, fell just short of a medal after a close 15-13 bout with Shaun-Paul. Also first time I ever fenced with emotion. I've never wanted to beat a team in team event more than that day.

2. Handball final against GH. The freshmen impressed and stunned me beyond words. We (F-block) started out with only two seniors (McVin and I) against GH with four. McVin was fantastic, holding the freshies in the outfield together. And of course, the likes of CunZhi et al played really well, even managing to smother the gigantic H, forcing him to shoot wide or from the wing. When Keefe slammed the ball past their keeper I nearly died of excitement heh.

The girls played very well too, and Geraldine's shot was straight out of the textbook. I seriously feared for the life of Jenny who bravely stood up to Brenda's terribly brutal shots (I don't know, but the whole game for both guys and girls was played with small F goalkeepers keeping proportionally and anatomically larger GH players at bay), but yea she played well also and kept us in the game!

That we lost on a technicality was rather painful (That the referees made an issue of me coming out of the keepers area when the Olympic handballers do it all the time showed that they didn't know the rules very well in the first place), but oh well, at least it was not IHG.... I really really enjoyed playing for my block =)

3. CCA recruitment. This year's batch of freshmen seem unusually idealistic heh and signed up for a lot of stuff. But oh well, no doubt they will slowly shakedown and drop out of whatever they can't handle...

4. And lastly, the first time which I made an announcement to the class. Wasn't sure how they would react, but the thought of the other KE medics doing it for their own classes was a great incentive for not backing out. And thank God, they reacted so well. It was really heartening hearing people asking about it. The sheer speed of the response was amazing. And I felt really touched yesterday when people showed me the plasters over their median cubital veins. I must have more faith in human nature next time

Yup, shall leave it at that for now. Just woke up after night cycling, which is an epic tale unto itself, but will keep that for another time.

2008-08-15T18:44:00.003+08:00

My second prayer of yesterday was also answered as F-block went into handball finals for IBG =) And now I get to practise my reporting skills...

F-block versus AB looked like it was going to be a tough one. Each of the 3 seniors in each team were pretty experienced. I was keeper for my side, and had played the longest amongst the 3 keepers during IHG, but Loo Bing, my senior and goalkeeping shifu was on the other. Eric and AikLeong, winger and second man for F block, faced Wei Qing, the wickedly fast basketballer from AB, as well as the super tall Vincent. Add to the mix JunFeng from AB, who scored the winning goal past me the year before while we had all been freshmen.

On the other hand, we had excellent freshies on both guys and girls sides, in JingZhi, Jeana and Jenny.

Aik Leong had already warned me that the showdown would most likely be between Wei Qing's terrifically strong right arm, blistering speed and ability to read and intercept long shots, and my speed, an encounter which always proves more painful for the goalkeeper in the end.

Curiously enough the match was pretty manageable. We scored pretty early when a AB freshie caught the ball inside his own goal area. Aik Leong wound up and fired the shot past Loo Bing making it 1-0 to F. Wei Qing replied with a ball of predictable speed but was fired over the defenders and was too close to me, which I blocked comfortably. Aik Leong and Eric had a string of chances, but each time, Loo Bing was in the way to save or to force them to shoot wide.

Wei Qing then clawed through the F block defence, sending me onto my toes, then let fly with a magnificient shot to the bottom corner. I dived but the ball was way too fast. Fortunately for us, it ricochetted off the post and out. Vincent added his bit by shooting a fast ball to my left this time, but again it was a manageable shot. I tried to initiate a fast break by sending a ball straight to Aik Leong loitering near Loo Bing's goal, but Wei Qing was everywhere and smothered the attempt before it could reach

Unfortunately, just as I thought we were home and dry, F-block committed the exact same mistake which had led to the game's only goal so far. Up stepped Wei Qing to the penalty line, point blank range for him. I knew he favoured my right and dived accordingly, but the ball was again too fast and went under me. Need to brush that up before IHG.

So ended the guy's component at 1-1.

Up stepped the girls. Within 2 minutes, AB had taken a shot at our goal for it to be saved well from Jenny, and I knew that unless they mustered something out of the average, the crucial goal wouldn't come from the opposition.

I was right. Meiyi added two spectacular long shots and Laura a lob which brought the score to F 4-1 AB. To be fair to AB's keeper, the long shots were not easily seen coming since she was probably blinded by her defenders' bodies. I call it the EH syndrome cos it happened to me during IHG. It was a brilliant performance by the girls' team, though my memories of it aren't as good as the guys since I wasn't so involved hahah....

After the game, I met up with Loo Bing and Wei Qing and had a good laugh with them over our sides' identical fortunes during the guy's half. Especially between the former and myself, who both only had to stop relatively easy shots, but had conceded one penalty each.

Still, we're through to the handball finals against GH, whose guys and girls are equally good. Till then, I must rest the greater trochanter of my right femur which has been dived on numerous times already.

2008-08-14T16:04:00.002+08:00

The prayers that I prayed for the past half a year came through with the culmination of driving today.

Then again, I should have known that if I could have gotten into Medicine after such a absymal interview, anything was possible. Silly me, not to have thought of that earlier.

What I needed last night, really, was for someone to just say "I know you can do it" and hammer all my doubts into something concrete, whether it was ultimately true or not. And of course, I did get it, amongst the welter of messages I received last night, messages which I appreciate very much, one and all.

Last night was like a minor version of the night before enlistment. Slept at 11.30 pm, and woke at 4.30, and couldn't go back to sleep again heh kept thinking about yellow boxes, lane changes and what not.

The warm up at 8 didn't do much for my peace of mind either, with me banging one kerb during directional change, and not daring to put my foot down along Ubi Ave 4.

But when push came to shove, I guess my body delievered the goods =) It definitely wasn't conscious thought, cos I was in a terrible state. My mouth was dry, I could only croak out "yes sir"s, "no sir"s and "sorry sir"s. Happily, I had a rather benign tester, who, like my instructor, talked quite a bit on his phone, but gave me plenty of warning before each turning.

It was during directional change, again (my most feared subject) that the foul up occured. When I was reversing the blue Lancer gave an almighty shudder and died. In that driving seat, I nearly died as well, because I thought I had hit a kerb. But it was just a simple stall ("Insufficient acceleration", wrote the instructor) so I could continue.

Parallel parking was done at my least favourite location next to the ramp, but everything went well, as did reverse parking, and my favourite S- and crank-course. Getting out was a bit tricky, and my tester made me E-brake.

E-brake, or emergency brake, as it is formally called, is one of the most fun actions to be incorporated into a driving test. It includes one of the most exciting movements one can do in a moving vehicle: That of jamming a pedal, excluding the clutch, into the floorboard. Whether one gets it right and presses the brake, or gets it wrong and presses the accelerator, it always sends a rush of blood to the brain. I had never done it before, and most of my friends have never been tested on it, but it's a category on the scoring sheet so I guess it had to happen to someone. In fact, my instructor only formally told me of its existence the night before.

As it was, my tester was very nice to kinda give me warning, saying "Jonathan..... STOP! *Bang*" When he called my name (and happily, my name is pretty long) my foot was already moving from accelerator to brake, while the triceps surae of my other leg started to become itchy ready to slam the clutch into the floor. Which I did successfully. The G-forces made my eyes want to pop out, and any screeching of the brakes was drowned out by my bag with the attached water bottle crashing from the passenger's seat onto the ground. But very satisfying nonetheless =)

The road part, as I thought was more smooth. Once I could change out of first gear heh I felt much more confident. My route was pretty easy, except that the heavy vehicles were out in force, but nothing spectacular happened (thankfully).

I didn't realise how much the short 45 min test had taken until the tester bounded out of the car saying "Follow me" and I opened the door, stepped out, put my weight on my foot, and nearly fell flat on my face cos my knees buckled heh. I had to cling on to the railings to climb up the stairs.

But when he said "Your driving's not bad", I was unspeakably relieved =) I passed!

More sobering was when we went to view the road safety video. Out of the initial 16 people who were in the waiting room for the test, only 8 were left. I daresay I was one of the youngest people there (though maybe I looked older cos I was dressed like a dork). My instructor had told me that they are stricter with the young drivers. I didn't quite believe it till I saw who was left, compared with who had been there earlier.

Have a lot to thank God for, from the parents and grandparents who sponsored me for driving, the instructors whom I have given many heart attacks to, the friends who recommended the instructors to me, those who were qualified who gave me advice, and gave me much encouragement throughout my driving course. Especially many thanks to the people whom I would complain to about driving whenever I ran into them =D

God was not just my co-pilot. His hands were on the wheel of the car as well this morning guiding the course of the car, as the instructor does for the student on his first day of driving =)

2008-08-12T00:08:00.002+08:00

Did my best ever handball save today. Unlike the vs EH one, it wasn't so much luck as sheer reflexes heheh. Marcus jumped over the defenders, and suddenly, like IBG last year, I could see the lines of the ball, where he would shoot, where he was blocked.

Dived low and right and as a bonus, got a solid parry on the ball =)

Unfortunately, I also landed on my greater trochanter which now has a nice bruise on it heheh but otherwise am fine. I'm sorry, this is such a trivial incident but I'm very happy with it so I'm venting it out also =D

Have been watching handball on the olympics. Discovered some new keeper tactics which worked very well for me today, but should only be attempted if wearing tracks. Happily, my two pairs of tracks acquired during the Great Singapore Sale are standing me in good stead now =)

Anyway, Thursday is gonna be super exciting! Driving in the morning and IBG at night, both handball and soccer. Hope out there there is a super zai freshman goalkeeper to share the pain during trainings =)

2008-08-10T18:53:00.001+08:00

If I never knew you
If i never felt this love
I would have no inkling of
How precious life can be

And if I never held you
I would never have a clue
How at last I'd find in you
The missing part of me.

In this world so full of fear
Full of rage and lies
I can see the truth so clear
In your eyes
So dry your eyes

And I'm so grateful to you
I'd hve lived my whole life through
Lost forever
If I never knew you

If I never knew you
I'd be safe but half as real
Never knowing I could feel
A love so strong and true

I'm so grateful to you
I'd have lived my whole life through
Lost forever
If I never knew you

I thought our love would be so beautiful
Somehow we'd make the whole world bright
I never knew that fear and hate could be so strong
all they'd leave us were these wispers in the night
But still my heart is saying we were right

Oh if I never knew you
There's no moment I regret
If i never felt this love
Since the moment that we met
I would have no inkling of
If our time has gone too fast
How precious life can be...
I've lived at last...

I thought our love would be so beautiful
Somehow we'd make the whole world bright
I thought our love wuold be so beautiful
We'd turn the darkness into light
And still my heart is saying we were right
we were right

And if I never knew you
If I never knew you
I'd have lived my whole life through
Empty as the sky
Never knowing why
Lost forever
If I never knew you

-If I never knew you, Pocahontas 2, Jon Secada and Shanice

Nice song I heard on the shuttle to Downtown East.

2008-08-06T20:46:00.003+08:00

Have been staying in hall for a few nights now, though I'm back home again through an unusual set of circumstances. Its been a hot few days, and combined with the heat generated from the fluorescent lights in hall, makes sleeping a little uncomfortable, since the fans, though working, are but blowing hot air at me. Still, it's much better than F1 ever was.

Had a pleasant Flag Day with Bombini, much less exciting than last year's, which suited me fine, but a driving lesson bang in the middle of flag day had me away from the OG for the better part of the day, since they were flagging in ToaPayoh-Bishan-AngMoKio and I was all the way at Ubi.

I must say, though, that of the short period I was actively flagging, I realized that people this year seem much less receptive than those last year. Those big charities which have proved corrupt, or to be fair, the leaders of these big charities, have a lot to answer for in terms of the way they have affected other people's donation drives. Having spent not just one morning in Sec. Sch flagging for people like N K F, the thought of having been suckered as an idealistic student doesn't exactly fill me with pride either.

On the other hand, suspecting the thousands of NUS students of being a corrupt organization STILL does NOT give people the license to ignore us when we ask for donation does it? I mean, for one day, my name could have been Moses, with the waves of people parting around me. Suddenly, the people along the front of NTUC Fairprice in Toa Payoh found the wide walkway which I was on unconducive for walking and either diverted to the carpark, with the whizzing cars which were not dangerous at all, or to the corridor under the building next to me, which was so not-narrow either.

Suddenly, people seemed very preoccupied with things in the distance and didn't see the brightly clad student waving his can in their direction with the ever present request of "Good afternoon sir / ma'am, would you like to make a donation? We're from... nutshe'signoringme". If I were brandishing a foil, let's see how little they would react.

I mean, its only polite to look at the people speaking to you what isn't it? Or at least to say no thanks. At least it acknowledges the other person's presence. But if all my years of doing flag for N KF and St. John are an indicator, the mere fact that you're holding a can seems to give people an idea that you're a lower lifeform which doesn't have to be treated with equal respect. How deplorable. That's the word, deplorable.

Still, shall not forget the various aunties and the big friendly Malay man who donated money and even stopped to chat for a while. Such people make flag days nicer and leave you feeling happy and idealistic for a little while =)

Shall go on with a subject which raises the heat less in my ears. Driving was very good. In fact, it was my most on form day so far. Was very very calm despite the circuit being moderately crowded. I hit one kerb, but if I can replicate yesterday's perfomance twice more on Friday and next Monday, I shall be pretty confident for the test on Thursday. Its pretty cool how the instructor knows me AND Med WeiLun AND YingHui. The latter passed her test today, which is a small source of comfort since the instructor said both of us drive in a similar manner heh.

Still I see how. I hope can pass first time, if only to save money and also cos the upcoming weeks have crazily packed schedules (the next person to say "so lucky, no need to bid for modules" is lying through their teeth), combined with hall. Monday starts with me waking up at 0630 and finishing school at 1800, before having KE VCF welcome supper AND Hallplay Steering Comm meeting AND a friendly handball match all at night.

This academic year looks like one big test of time management alright =)

2008-08-02T22:14:00.003+08:00

Its nice to know that under 1 meter, where the foil is hard to wield, I can match Singapore's junior national fencers point for point, blade for blade. The only difficulty is getting there in the first place. Then again, I think today's team bout against Tan YZ was one of the most satisfying in my career. Survived a torrent of flicks and slashes from the very physically strong fencer from RJC to draw at 5-5 and maintain a 3 point lead for my team through stop hits and close quarters. One of his flicks opened an ugly injury on my little finger which stained my glove with blood, but the bout was good.

I nearly scored my best ever hit. The referee was giving "En Garde" and I was standing there wondering, "I'm against one of the strongest junior fencers in Singapore and he's reading me pretty well and stop hit's not going to work forever. What's the move which he'll least expect?"

At "Pret", I narrowed the on-guard stance and bent my knees.

At "Allez", I did a perfect flying fleche and flicked for his shoulder. To my intense disappontment, the blade scraped on his electric jacket before finally depressing on his arm just short of the shoulder. But I totally caught him napping cos he didn't move. What a pity. Still, for me, the back flick is in the development stage (I first used it competitively in FSI this year), so there's more time yet.

Still, though we only reached the quarters, the day was more tiring than I give it credit for I think. Shall be pushing off to sleep soon...

2008-07-31T22:43:00.002+08:00

I can't decide whether I should join KE VCF or Med VCF. And then it gets more confusing that there's Medicine VCF, which meets for cell groups and Medical CF (or what is known as MCF) which meets each morning before lessons.

On one hand, there is a group which I don't know very well.

On the other hand, there is a group who's schedule is never going to follow mine for the next 4 years and I don't feel too good having to keep turning down their activities. Last year's focus-night-just-before-exams or exam-blessing-after-exams-were-already-over were just two examples.

Then there is a factor of after attending my first church I have a phobia of meeting large groups of Christians without knowing their true motives. I also don't really like to step out of my comfort zone of OG / anat group / hall people into a group of people who already know each other very well.

And lastly and most importantly, I hate people who compare me to elder siblings in terms of giving me unsolicited advice on my time management.

Argh am tired and irritated and is not helping my dilemna.

2008-07-30T23:47:00.003+08:00

Am installed in my new room in KE hall with a slowly increasing amount of stuff... It was fun to check in knowing exactly what to do without being nervous at all the KEWOCs milling around like last year =D Knowing how to get to the room as well as how to unlock the door using the transponder which was such an enigmatic piece of equipment at first sight.

F206 is a great improvement over its cousin F106. For one thing, the view is better. I can actually see PGP and the trees behind G block! And everything which didn't work in 106 works here. The door locks smoothly (instead of me having to pull the door against the frame so that the lock could fit into its slot), the towel rack, clothes rack and clothes hooks are all firmly attached to the walls and door respectively. Cool.

Oh and did I mention the wireless internet connection's equally good here as downstairs! I can finally use firefox on my laptop again!

So have shifted in my recreational books, some clothes and toiletries plus bed linen, enough to sustain life for a few days heh.

Its day 2 in a series of 3 days of games with the OG. Badminton yesterday and tomorrow, plus basketball today. Tiring but fun!

When I see the M1s and as I get them to know them better, I'm reminded so much of my own development as a officer cadet out from the army into a medical student / KEVIIan, looking at friendships initiated in medicamp grow to the degree it is now. As all of us share how our interviews went while pouring starchy sawdust over paper mache mannequins, it just reminds me how fortunate and blessed I am to be where I am now, how a shot in the dark (for that's what applying for medicine seemed to me to be like) materialized to be real in that magical night after patrol field camp.

Also, how everything fell into place in medicine. Think I am one of the blessed few who have 3 unique circles of friends in my batch: OG, Hall and Anat Group which get along well in their own right, making for pleasant times whether in lecture, at meals or in lessons.

One moment we were M1, struggling to finish our pros, next moment we are M2, having experienced the lectures, anat lessons, even overseas holidays, and are bursting with stuff to pass down to our year 1s ("Chope seats early! Get a Co-op card! Be OGLs next year! Don't buy papa Moore!"). Such a miraculous year

Yea just some thoughts which were running through my head at the very moment I was leading the OG down from the Arts canteen before going home for my driving lesson, and they to their matric fair: Yet another step for them to developing their own stories about life as a medical student which they will pass down in turn to their M1s.

I'm especially reminded of this when people ask me after me n my sister and they say "both of you are from VJ and you BOTH got into medicine!?" No, it didn't matter where we came from. We just trusted that God would bring us to where he wanted us to go and so now I trust I will graduate as good a doctor that I am intended to be (of course, with a lot of hard work put in too on my part).

2008-07-27T16:32:00.003+08:00

So the fever's abated and I'm almost back to normal, except that I couldn't sing at church today cos I had a lot of stuff in my throat..

On Friday night at 2 am, apparently I sleep-crawled to my sister's room, opened her door (she was still awake tidying her room), stuck my head in and quite deliberately, in a normal-volumed speaking voice, said something to extent of asking my younger brother to tell her to read "The Tale of Two Cities" before closing the door and going back to bed, shortly before she heard me going to the toilet.

She said it was "Like a zombie movie" because the door appeared to open on its own, and only my head was visible on the floor. She also said "Good thing you did not think my room WAS the toilet". She also said she was scared of going over and waking me up in case I wasn't in my right mind =D

One room away, my father said that he heard us talking in normal voices late at night and he thought that my fever had escalated and I was asking her for help, cos at night we usually keep our voices down heh...

I don't know, but I find that very amusing haha...

At 6.30, my phone alarm rang properly, followed by the single buzz of a received SMS. And thank God, it was Jason offering a lift to Buangkok via Christine, his counsellee. The headache and generalized weakness of the day before had gone thankfully so one way or another, I managed to get to CIP! =)

This CIP was pretty fun compared with some of the others... Played checkers, majong, and got owned at table tennis by this really good resident. I mean, he could return all but one of my notoriously curling serves. Meanwhile he was hitting the ball all over with wicked spinning shots. With the target's aspect changing all the time I just couldn't muster an effective defence tskk...

Still, he probably plays more often than me...

THEN along came the Great Mass Dance Massacre of Buangkok. I have no idea who's incredible idea it was. I mean, it was probably all in good fun, but then the announcement was made by two MCs from another OG saying "Our seniors will [present a mass dance]" but what I thought was a whole OGL thing came down to two pairs of OGLs and two pairs of OGlets ALL from our OG diaoz.

Well no problem, once I heard the music again, the moves came back automatically. Only that we weren't attired for dancing. Jiayi, who was oh-so-enth much to my gratitude was wearing jeans. I was wearing the long pants in which I did a star jump in Fukuoka but that didn't mean they were comfortable to exercise in.

The other minor hitch was that the people in question were not as fortunate as myself to have parents who warned me that putting electronic devices together could cause interference, but apparently, the impromptu nature of the performance was sealed by using a microphone put to a handphone to supply the music. The resulting music was broken, full of static and darn hard to follow cos I don't even dance too well in good music, let along staticky ones. Kinda like throwing good money in after bad. Kinda like Napoleon at Waterloo

So there I was, freezing up everytime the music broke up, and there were my 7 faithful followers all trying to copy my motions, and the end result was rather chaotic. Kinda like Napoleon at Waterloo after the Old Guard was repulsed.

I mean, every VJ student knows that the main effect of mass dance is that A LOT of people are doing it, so no matter how many people do it wrong, it still looks right! But here there were only 8 people, going in 8 different directions at certain points of the dance.

Don't get me wrong, I shall be eternally grateful to Julia, Jiayi and Charlene, Mayank and Mas, Junyang and Elaine for accompanying me on that day. Just that orientation mass dances are usually for the finale night of orientation then discarded, not for an event 3 or so weeks after the latter, and everyone was very rusty, me included. So there we were, 8 of us valiantly, idealistically, trying to put on a good show.

I never recovered from the last "boom" in the song faster than friday cos as soon as the music stopped the red mist (red from agitation, not anger) evaporated, leaving us feeling as though we had committed some HORRENDOUS crime and we all scurried off the stage in an attitude of "Ohmygoodness, WHAT HAVE WE DONE!"

In retropect it was quite funny, but man, was it necessary? Was it even good??

I think it was there, at that very moment, that I sweated out the remainder of my fever hoho...

Well, CIP ended happily, with the residents shaking our hands, the social workers looking happy, and the Lakota component of our OG going to Tampines for a drink / icecream at Macs. A thoroughly memorable day

Now my next goal is to pass my driving test in 3 weeks!

2008-07-25T20:38:00.003+08:00

This is possibly one of the most wrong times to fall sick =(

Was supposed to play soccer against my sister's year today, but the sore throat and cough from yesterday degenerated into a fever and general weakness today. While it was quite nice to know my body was fighting off the reaction (presumably by creating the pyrogenic reaction), it certainly didn't feel good. The fact that the weather was miserable to play soccer in (even if I were well) led me to messaging my team captain to tell him I couldn't make it

=(((

which warranted a "oh sh1+" from him. Its so annoying that I've been falling sick at all the games during the hols, leaving WeiLun and Marcus to get in the practise but not myself. Its not worth much if I can only perform well during training sessions.

The thought of waking up at 6.30 tomorrow in order to reach Buangkok in time for CIP also doesn't appeal to me if I feel tomorrow what I'm feeling today. Maybe I'll have to join my OG later sigh.

On a happier note, the enthusiasm showed by my OG, I must say, is pretty much unparalleled haha... Soooo many of them are there every day and for the most part, everyone is happy, willing and self-disciplined as to when to work and when to break. Been quite pleasant doing it with them, though yesterday the sore throat plus glue made me want to strangle myself or something.

Also, with Thursday past, my siblings and I have all finished celebrating our 3 weeks of 1-birthday-per-week, though this year we took the healthier option of sharing one cake instead of having 3 separate cakes hahaha... We are all getting very old (though my sister, for one, doesn't look her age)

Anyway my brain feels all dried out after sneezing out so much fluid (maybe I shouldn't have joked so much about nasal expulsions yesterday during rag)... shall stop here

2008-07-17T13:58:00.002+08:00

Pictures from the past few weeks which I've been taking with my phone but have been too lazy to extract out (mainly due to the tedious process of having to disassemble everything then put them back together again...)

Precamp tea. Took this picture in between running up and down the foyer guiding M1s to the hall. Cedric said "We don't need ushers! The signs are idiot-proof!" Well, I guess if they followed the summation of the vectors shown they'd still be in the correct direction

An inside look at fright night. The brightly-lit cupboard room looks nowhere as scary as when the lights are on and the creepy music is not driving us insane. Here KeYi adds tape to the cupboards to add to the creepy feel. Unfortunately, the dim light meant many of our decorations could not be seen =(

10 minutes to H-hour. Fright Night IC Paul gives the final briefing (with the mirror-room ghosts looking on in the background)...

... as the ghosts apply their facepaint and just hang around in eager anticipation. While we were all raring to go then, 8 hours later we were all dead on our feet. It was a memorable start to a birthday though heh

The last day. Supper at Changi Village and evidently the physical exertions of the past few days had taken their toll on these Medicine Sophomores, with 3 out for the count and 1 simply looking deranged. I guess she wouldn't have looked out of place at fright night either =D

The sports hall at the University-at-the-end-of-the-world, aka NTU. The raised fencing piste was something we experienced for the first time. Unfortunately it would also make fleching very hard...

Yup that's all for now

2008-07-15T21:26:00.002+08:00

This is the first night I've got to sit down and relax for some time. Ever since Medicamp I've been rushing across the island to God-forsaken NTU, church, rag and whatnot. So tonight I can print photos and add people to MSN at last heh

Today started out badly. I was in a pretty bad mood, augmented by the fact that I woke up at 6.15, reached NTU at 8.15 and discovered my poule was fencing at 11.

I shall not talk about FSI here. Will probably get permanently banned from all competitions if I write everything I feel here. But I experienced a lot of NEW things. So NEW in fact that in almost 4 years of epee and foil, I've never seen these regulations or laws. But I'm nobody right? The last I checked my national ranking was close to 50.

So such was the day that the major irritating things got me annoyed, then every minor irritating thing which I usually can tolerate became outstandingly irritating as well. I must have been short of sleep and short of temper for once.

The good points of the day is that soccer training in the afternoon was pretty good. I think things have improved tremendously since IHG and I was less scared of the ball and the flying feet (maybe because I had so much pent up negative energy). And also my OG is pretty enthu in rag. Looks like Julia and I managed to pass on the spirit ok.

Speaking of which, when I look back on the pictures of medicamp, I really think at least 4 of them look like people whom I know (including SJ juniors, a fencers, and old platoon mates from OCS). I remember how during precamp tea I kept doing double takes at those individuals cos I kept thinking my friends had suddenly miraculously appeared in my vicinity hoho.

Right, shall put my head down and continue printing pics. Til then, cheerio

2008-07-13T18:05:00.002+08:00

Got talked into staying back and fencing with a japanese fencer yesterday in FM, despite the fact that I'd only gone down to test my blades, buy an electric jacket, and was wearing formal pants (hardly appropriate fencing attire) while my opponent emerged wearing a shirt which said "Kansai Universities Championships".

The match was pretty fun but maybe I wasn't fencing as hard as I could cos I was trying to conserve the tip. Lost 5-3 (one close quarter, one stop hit, one disengage). My opponent was kinda interesting. He can flick against the natural bend of the blade! The first point was scored when he was advancing, I reached out to parry, then clickclickclick zzzzziiing two counterparries later my new lame was blooded for the first time. Didn't help that he was tall and left handed.

Still, it should be interesting for both of us to fence all out if we meet each other on Tuesday.

Being 20's not much different from being 19 heh. Just had a combined celebration with my sister and brother yesterday...

2008-07-11T23:17:00.002+08:00

Where do I begin? Its been a long week (I can feel it in my eyelids) but there's so much to write about.

Precamp tea was slow. Medicamp first day was slightly faster.

But Bombini, the fantastic 12th OG of Medicamp 08, never looked back. Everyone picked up momentum and grew closer as the days went by. By the last day, people were taking photos, laughing at each other's EZlink card pictures, suanning each other and generally gradually acting more as an energetic family than 30 plus people flung together for one orientation. Where do I start with the memories?

On the first day, we OGLs all turned up in the same jersey, the only OG to do so wahaha... We had gone to Queensway and cleared the shops of their stocks of this design. Took quite a lot of effort and my legs seriously wanted to buckle after that, but it was worth it =D If anything, it served as a reminder of the importance of Medicamp; the phenomenon of a bunch of strangers coming together, interacting, and one year later coming together as as bonded a bunch of OGLs as there ever were.

Bombini started out slowly, with people talking politely albeit with the slight awkwardness which comes with meeting people for the same time. There were a few small groups at first, but the OG gradually grew onto each other into a collective whole, like little lumps in the batter which have to be smoothened out before the cake can turn out nicely. I kinda regret slightly volunteering for so many things that I didn't get to spend so much time with them, never got to learn their cheers or watch them in action in games (besides mine), but still, managed to interact a fair bit with them, teaching them mass dance and stuff...

Events on the last day at the finale made me so proud of them also, how they weathered a rather awkward moment with dignity and grace. If they needed a final nail to hammer the OG together, I think that was it =)

On the side, can I say also that my 20th birthday was one of the most memorable ever! It was the first time in a very long time that I did not spend it at SJ N-comp. I was kinda expecting to get a birthday song, and knew that sooner or later I would be slung into the sea (as it is, it turned out to be sooner). But I really did not expect the others, even though today I discovered I was actually waltzing through the preparations happily taking photos and didn't notice heh. It was very kind of them =)

I think of all the things which touched me that day, it was that the other M2s tried to keep awake til I came back from fright night to celebrate. Though it didn't happen as planned (I wouldn't blame them. It was 5.30 am already after a very long and tiring day for everyone, M1 or M2), I kinda knew when I came into the room and saw the lights still on and spectacles still on faces.

In short, Medicamp was a great experience and I thank God for putting me in this OG because, like last year, I wouldn't have wanted to be in any other. The freshmen, and of course, my very own classmates from Lakota made it an experience which I would do well not to forget! Hope I can continue to get to know the M1s more, both as a senior to all and a (hopefully responsible) counsellor to some.

Well, Medicamp's now over, and Rag is starting. Am praying that the OG will be enthu and not give Junyang/Mastura any headache. I personally don't care too much about the float, but I always care about fulfilling duty and more importantly, of the bonding process which comes with it. It's been proven that the groups most enthu in rag stay together the longest and I hope they can continue with the trend!

Meanwhile, am very tired, so shall go off and sleep first... Hope that wasn't too incoherent,

2008-07-04T15:47:00.002+08:00

My sleep cycle has been all messed up ever since I watched the Euro finals (and haha Spain won!). It still wasn't settled and I'd slept for all of two hours when I dragged myself (with my father and his car's help) to school for OGL precamp. Needless to say, Amazing Race nearly knocked me out already.

In fact, the first game already felt supremely tiring even though I've definitely run more in handball training (even as a goalkeeper). Between Shawn Lim, Cheryl, Charlene and I we must have scored the fastest goal ever heheh.

But managed to try out everything I had to try out. Alfred n I are out of war games (which I guess is a good thing) for fright night, which has the potential to go pretty far if all the logistics pan out ok. Heh its kinda evil to say, but it was most gratifying when people came in to scream =P Jiayan's hiding place, I must say, is a stroke of genius. But 20 couples and 3 hours later, I think all of us were pretty tired / asphyxiated for those who had to hide in claustrophobic places. Its a good thing though, that no one's enthusiasm for scaring our fellow classmates didn't wane =) With the right atmosphere, fright night's gonna be memorable.

Of course, the most fun part of precamp was during free time when the OG was left alone to its own devices, playing cards, eating snacks and so on. Was a little too busy to join in some of their independant operations, but oh well, guess I called it upon myself also. Conked out on the second night like a dead log even while everyone was playing cards, hide and seek and a lot of other noisy games around me heheh.

Precamp tea's tomorrow! Then the Medicamp proper on monday. I have two juniors whom I know directly coming in, and four more people whom I can look out for who are two degrees of separation away from me! Just hope that the people from my own OG are nice and enthusiastic =)

2008-06-30T23:56:00.002+08:00

Its been a dusty week. The repairmen came to the house to repair the damage done to the wall by the car accelerating down a rather steep slope from across the road as mentioned a few posts ago. Also, more workmen came to paint my sister's room. With all the furniture going around the house, it was inevitable that the dust would come.

As the eldest son, it was also inevitable that I had to help out in the work, even though it, for the most part, had nothing to do with me =D

So it happened on Saturday afternoon, between coming back from fencing and going out with my JC class, I had to help my father assemble my sister's bookcases. The process kicked off with the two of us maneuvering the long parcels of wood up the staircase. The landing made it a little difficult cos we had to tilt the thing vertical so that it could fit, me making a lot of heaving and whoosing noises, my father making derisive comments on the physical quality of "our ex-officer cadet", and my sister cackling every time we made a loud thump.

It was kinda like the description in H.J. Riker's Los Angeles Class of the torpedoes being loaded into the submarine.

Still, it was pretty fun assembling the thing, finding the pieces and screwing everything together (like a giant lego puzzle). Except for the part when we were trying to slide in the backboard of the bookcase and the thing wouldn't fit exactly in all the required grooves (like it would go into one, and fall out of the other at the other side) and in the end I started laughing while I was doing it, which made my hands shake and my very-patient father who was holding the whole thing up for me to fit in the thing ending up expending more energy oops..

In the end we solved the whole thing by turning the bookcase upside down and hammering everything into place heh.

The JC class gathering was also pretty fun though maybe there weren't that many people... Trina and ChuaH are also coming back soon, so that will be another opportunity to meet up haha. We watched "Wanted" which was very hmmm... interesting and graphic, shall we say, but kinda unreal. I mean its the kind of show which you watch and say "Yeaaaa riiiight" to yourself at the same time

Anyway, OGL precamp beckons tomorrow... Wondering how it'll be like. I know a lot of effort has gone into it but its gonna be different from medicamp... There won't be the air of discovering the new qualities in your OGmates with every game that goes by... Discovering WeiLun can scream higher than a girl, that Glen would allow himself to be dressed up as a model, that Alfred and Charlene could cook or that Ju was good in decor, that kinda thing.

Still, we'll see how it goes, and I hope I survive the shiong shiong Wednesday schedule heh

2008-06-26T14:08:00.003+08:00

The digital camera and articulated tripod are finding a new lease of life being used to video tape the bouts on foil nights. Video analysis of the bouts on tuesday have proved to be quite useful... My parry 4 and parry 1 have become more economical but have a lot more to work on, especially footwork building up to the fleche and lunge. But the camera's very sensitive to changes in light so some clips are as good quality as a full blown video cam, while others are pooooor.

And of course, everyone in FM laughed and oohed and aahed over the cute little tripod again. When Mark, the little boy, excitedly told Coach that "Look at Jon's tripod" then Coach thought Mark was joking... until I attached the camera to the top heh..

We also joked that we could attach the tripod/camera to our left hands, then if we held our left hands perfectly still while fencing, we could have a fencer's eye-view of the match, like in Formula 1 =D Only thing is that while doing a lunge you'll have a moment of blurness, with the camera coming to rest facing backwards and upside down (only fencers will understand why).

Am very annoyed that I succeeded in my first back flick in FM, but it happened that I didn't have priority at that time so it wasn't valid though the red light was very rewarding.

Incidentally, I discovered what I thought was termed a "parry cut", which I took to be synonymous for "parry 4", was actually spelt "parry quarte" which MEANS "parry 4", except that in the french pronunciation, quarte = "kart" so I kinda got the answer right and the concept wrong at the same time... Speaking of which I must bring the magic pen to fencing tonight to annoy the fencers heh.

Anyway we celebrated another birthday in the OG (or wedding, depending how you look at), before going to watch "Serendipity" at Charlene's house. Our OG seems to have a tendency to watch shows about two lovers trying desperately to find each other against all the odds (See also, "The Lake House"). Though I find such shows quite entertaining, but entirely improbable.

Found the film adaptation of Roald Dahl's "Matilda" on Youtube as well. It had some significantly different parts which I shall not mention... Think the book was nicer, but the movie was pretty cute as well though it contained a few scary bits (Shows will dolls always end up freaking me out here and there). Still, good enough I guess...

JC class gathering is the last thing in the immediate future before medicamp. FM's off to Hong Kong for a week (wish I could have gone with them, but precamp calls) so no fencing for a while... See how it goes =)

2008-06-24T01:18:00.004+08:00

Today I just discovered that during parallel parking I'm supposed to watch the pole align with the car body in the wing mirror before straighting, not just making sure I could see it. Which effectively meant that I parked the car by fluke during the last session -_-"' but I got it in the end... Am very happy with reverse parking and slope, which my instructor called "beautiful" heh. All 3 attempts went very well. If i fail any of those during the test I shall be annoyed.

On the other hand my instructor said that my progress through the S-course was "too slow", which I agree cos I feel really claustrophobic in there. It was pretty funny now that I think of it... It happens that in ubi there's a drain that runs across all the crank and S-courses, so the car will thump across and I would jump, jam the clutch and brake down for a split second before I realise I have NOT in fact hit a kerb and continue with trepidation.

After one round he was pretty annoyed and said something to the extent of "You know GIRLS dare to take the S-course at speed! Go round and do it again and DON'T brake!" So at half clutch and thumping the wheel from lock to lock (and my heart thumping too) I swooped through the S-course without so much as a caress of the kerb heheh. I know I didn't breathe for the entire time I was inside... So I had this really huge toxic CO2 rich lungful of breath to release by the time I emerged from the other end, and took great pains to let it out slowwwwwly so that he wouldn't notice how tight-lipped and white-knucked I was =D

On the other hand, saw the driver in front of me, bearing the double L-plate of a driver on test, hit the kerb at the crank course, reverse, and hit it again. 2 X 10 points means that I saw him (her?) fail in front of my eyes, which was a pretty depressing sight =(

Also saw a driver on the slope who swooped up and applied his brakes. The indicator came on so I anticipated him accelerating off and clearing the way for me. Instead, the brake lights went off and the car came flying back down -_-"' Of course, I was in no danger, but all these sights just serve as a reminder of what can go wrong during an actual test!!!

I think before I go for my test (whenever that will be) I shall go up to FM and get Coach to psyche me up heh.

Anyway my right deltoid or supraspinatus is aching. Either I have been tossing a lot in my sleep or I really used too many close quarters during training on Saturday. While I'm on the subject may I thank Daniel and Maurice for perfecting the "escape-from-close-quarters" drills which I am now using a lot in foil...

Flu's almost gone. Hope I can go fence tomorrow in the foil league.

2008-06-21T17:49:00.002+08:00

Headache and sore throat. Irritation. I think I caught a bug from somewhere. I thought it was Minds which did it, but apparently not.

Went out with JinRong and HIS councilor, Shawn (Sean? Shaun?) yesterday. Shawn's councilor was supposed to come as well, but he said the latter was "not yet back from India". Turned out that the said person was David, my sister's classmate from VJ!! and one of the 7 people in that oh-so-smart 02S18 to get into Medicine. JinRong (04S17) and my class (05S15) had only 3 people apiece getting to NUS Med in comparison. Its a small world in the medical community indeed.

We were all from VJ so we could reminice about all the things which happened there. Soccer finals, half days, playing bridge (and getting caught). When Shawn heard that that S1 had become A1 he looked very scandalized too heh. We walked past Z-fencing and he asked me to give them a quick run down on it too.

Oh went shopping too. Yes, GUY shopping. Went into Royal Sporting House, asked where everything was, bought and left haha... A quick entry, strike and exfiltration hoho.

Went with Jin Rong to Dhoby Ghaut to meet the OG for Minds' Cafe. VERY stimulating experience as always. Am amused that my OG holds me in such high esteem in the hypothetical situation that I run over my neighbour's cat... Oh and thanks, Ruth for the chewing gum! I've yet to try it cos I don't feel like eating anything, but am sure it'll be nice. Bones was very damaging and traumatic, not the least cos it comes with a lot of screaming on the part of various females heh... Jiayi, JinRong and I preferred to stay quiet and concentrate all energy on getting a bone.

Fencing again today. Tiring as usual. Made a point to fence everyone who was there at least once... And one person asked me about FM and said he was interested in joining. Haha interesting. Wonder how that would develop. But till then, need to recover so that I can drive on Monday.

2008-06-18T14:33:00.002+08:00

I've been beaten by JC for 3 WEEKS in a row now at the tuesday foil league. Urghhh though the score is always cut very close at the start, but I don't have the energy to go all 3 segments at full speed.. The gap always opens up in the last 2 minutes sighh... Still, he and Shaun-Paul say that my fleche is "damn accurate" so that's something. But its difficult in its own right to fence against tall foilists.

Went onto the circuit for the first time too as mentioned haha... My hands were grabbing the steering wheel so tightly. Nervous, cos it was the first time but oh well... Parallel and reverse parking was pretty easy with the poles as visual reference and I didn't hit anything, but that was with the instructor giving instructions. Could do it by myself on the 2nd to 3rd tries once I was sure that I had his *chinese* instructions interpreted correctly haha...

But still I think he's more of teaching me how to pass the test in the car I'm using, cos everything's by the book, turn the steering wheel how many turns when the pole reaches a certain visual reference etc and all... So after I qualify, I'll be able to park a Mitsubishi Lancer and not much else haha...

Parking, directional change, crank and S-courses were pretty ok. Only that the slope was more sloping than all the other slopes cunningly planted around Ubi by the LTA. The car slid back on the first go even though I applied exactly the same tactics as I did on the road. So on the next two attempts I had to rev the engine to slightly more than 3000 to prevent the same. I hope I'm one of those students who can pass with only 5 circuit trainings cos for private students circuit training seems very hard to come by =(

Well shall stop here then

2008-06-17T00:21:00.002+08:00

Last saturday my parents and I were having dinner at home cos my sister was still in India and my brother was out studying. I, of course, was still raving about Japan when an almighty series of crunching noises came from outside. The three of us leapt out of our chairs and headed for the door.

Meanwhile, behind, the three cats leapt away from their dinner plate and headed for the nearest hiding place.

After squinting through the darkness for a while, it turned out that the neighbour had forgotten to engage his "park" and his handbrake, whereupon the car slid down the rather sharp gradient, shot across the road, over the drain and planted its posterior firmly in the flowerbed which lines the outside of the wall of our house. The wall (made of brick) itself and its fence (made of wood) got stove in to form an extended V.

Still, that's one of the interesting things which have happened this week.

First, MY SISTER'S BACK so the house has gotten a bit noisier haha... The light in the adjoining room to mine now goes on during funny times of the day... there's an odd clank, bang or bonk sound from there emitted by the banging together of things being spring-cleaned in her room... The Great M5 is about to go back to the battlefield... and in slightly more than one month, I'm gonna join her as a M2 urgh...

MY BROTHER'S going for his C M P B medical checkup... Shades of my own (2nd June 2006, the morning before a certain string concert) with ChuaH... Haha its not something I would happily go through again cos it wasn't all that efficient (read the post under June 2006 for more).

Been going out with OG quite a bit... Went baking (my goodness, can you imagine ME baking hahahah), movies, LAN etc... Been pretty fun... I thank God for sticking me into such a bonded OG which unceasingly keeps cooking up new things to do haha...

Tomorrow am going to the driving circuit for the first time... After hearing that all my contemporaries have gotten their driving test dates, I quite anxious to complete my driving course... I mean, besides parking, I'm sure I can handle a car on an EMPTY road haha... Not to say I'm overconfident, cos I've have had many an ear-blistering lesson on the quickly changing road conditions on Ubi. Plus things which have been happening to other acquaintences of mine which remind me of how careful one must be on the road... But hey I'd like to get it over and done with so that I don't have to keep going back and burn money on lessons and EZlink cards

Wednesday will be a KE M1 dinner (hope more people come, so KE M1s who don't know about this / are not on the yahoo group, please turn up!) to round off a very eventful half-week.

Till the next time, cheers!

2008-06-10T17:19:00.002+08:00

Life has settled into the routine of shuttling back and forth from home to Ubi (either for driving or fencing) and back home to sort photos of the Japan trip for printing. Of the latter task, I've finished =D A job which I'm immensely proud of hahah only thing is that I have no album to put them in so printing will be delayed until I do. Of the former, well, its draining my EZlink card especially when on days like today when I go once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

But my driving's improved haha and next week I'm going onto the circuit (finally!)... I probably have enough road training to last me for a long time... But my instructor told me, passing the test is only 70% skill. There's still 10% traffic conditions, 10% your affinity to your instructor and 10% the weather. Curious, cos I had been just contemplating how difficult it was to park in heavy rain. The worst experience I've ever had so far is fighting my way down to the U-turn at Eunos Link past the PIE and back in heavy rain where everything's reduced to vaguely visible blobs of light.

Contrast to today, when I had a green wave from halfway down Eunos Link all the way to the U-turn, and there were no cars within 15 meters of me when I made my lane change, so I stayed in 4th gear all the way down haha... There was no oncoming traffic at the U-turn so didn't even have to stop, just slowed, 2nd gear midway through the turn and accelerate out! I could almost die for such conditions during my test =D

The exciting monotony, shall we say, of driving was also broken last week with a reunion of the Japan Trip people in a japanese restaurant at Bugis Junction haha followed by a visit to Little India (the first time I've gone at night). And I discovered I'm actually pretty good at shopping in terms of quickly finding the required article ("Beginner's LUCK!" said Elli).... The only lucky part of the night was catching the last train home (or rather, missing the second-last train -_-"') but ahh I don't believe in luck anyway hahah both as a christian as well as a fencer...

Alright, I now have half an hour to psycho myself to drag out my jacket, foil and plastron to go fencing at FM haha... Til the next time

2008-06-05T12:31:00.002+08:00

Aftermath from Japan!! Can't stop thinking about it... Guess that's the reason why people say they want to go back to Japan so much hahah... When I was on a bus from church to meet my travel mates to sort photos, I was thinking how in Singapore its warm when you lean against the bus windows whereas in Japan its cold...

But I guess Singapore has its pluses too... Like how the toilet seats never freeze your backside in the morning...

So meanwhile, photos have been mostly sorted, and life has returned to reality. Within 4 hours of returning to Singapore my department IC for medicamp arrowed me to be IC for icebreakers. So if anyone has any incredible ice breaker ideas to be played within OGs please let me know, I have 7 days left to sort things out.

Been back driving. My driving is rusty, no question. Half-clutch, U-turn, slope, even lane change etc is all fine (which I should be considering I'm onto my 12th lesson), but the reaction to changing road situations is not too good, exarcebated by the language barrier (which gets worst when I'm in a tight spot cos then my instructor starts talking faster and more excitedly, with the result that I get even more lost). My instructor also asked me about my trip... And I discovered that its quite hard to remember that Kyoto is called jing du in chinese while doing a lane change...

Been back fencing too... Since the last time I've gone, handover has taken place and all the familiar faces of Changling and gang, XianZheng, KinChi etc have gone, to be replaced by the likes of the new exco. From what I see and hear, though, this new batch is in good hands, with a steady captain and vice-captain. Still, what is needed for the final boost is a spark of craziness heh. The spark which makes people train 4 hours a day, 6 times a week.

That said, I've just collected more bruises in the past 2 days that in the entire run-up to Novices in J2. Maybe my plastron is becoming a bit more loose, but somehow Jiunn Chyau landed a foil hit just below my collarbone, and the VJ epeeists added more on my wrist, my thyroid cartilage, left collarbone and so on. I shall avoid wearing polo shirts / any other V-necked shirt once the bruises start turning yellow... Shall I add that Jon Boon attempted an overambitious flick on my shoulder and now I have a shiny abrasion there that looks more like a burn than anything =D

Funny to be back at fencing haha.... Was super off form at foil night, though I managed to stay very focused and so finished 2nd in the league after losing a great 15-13 match to JC. He, Coach, Jourdan and the rest were watching me fence a newcomer, who's attacks I could pick off very easily, only that none of my ripostes hit him. My blade was dancing all over his jacket, but could never get the 0.5 newtons needed to score! I daresay I was at 0.4999999 N already! But in the end won5-0 after expending a disproportionately large amount of energy grrrr.

Then there was this little boy who couldn't have been out of primary school, who's tactic was so lower his head, stick out his hand and charge like a rhino. His electric jacket was so small I couldn't get a touch and got a fantastic amount of white lights (combined with the fact that my point control wasn't what it was). In the end I cheated and played epee style, lunge from far and counterattack heh. Not often I get the height advantage off someone.

Still, my parry-ripostes were back, for the first time since J2, to the lightning speed that Jon Tay and Matt Lopez hated back when we were sparring partners on Saturday mornings, so hopefully it stays that way. In the meantime, shall continue icing my numerous dings and pits...

Back from Japan

2008-06-02T00:39:00.004+08:00

Am back after 12 amazing days. Travelling out of the country never ceases to impress me and make me so happy! Now I know why Stella and Amanda Lim liked Japan so much.

And of course I had 4 great companions to share the trip with! From top left clockwise

Julia
Treasurer of The Common Fund
AMI-causer of the cycling trips
The lark of the morning

Glen
Navigator of the streets
Flasher of the yukata
Companion of the hotspring

Elli
Owner of The Tank
Deep sleeper of the room
Lead bomber in the nuclear strike force =Pp

Charlene
Navigator of the subways
Carrier of water
Owner of the nice hands

Each person really brought in their own contributions to the group, whether material or moral. Throughout the trip we used each other's soap, adaptors, music players, card readers, baggage space considerably, but am so grateful we had a good time and no one came out with a worst relationship than we had going in. There are just too many things about the trip to write for now, maybe another day, or maybe not at all. Somethings are funnier and more memorable when relieved out loud to another friend, than to a blog.

We went

We saw

We came back in one piece

Thank God, and all our parents and other relatives who kept us in prayer =) More another time!

2008-05-18T17:32:00.003+08:00

PDCP's over. Results are out. In all aspects of my life, thank you God for seeing me through. I'm never in doubt that one day I'll be a doctor, but the process sometimes scares me to death =D

I scraped through my Biochem and my average result's about the same as my sister's so I'm pretty happy heh.

Meanwhile, am 7 hours away from departure to Japan, for which I'm very excited and nervous at the same time (I'm always worried before holidays I have no idea why). Seems like I'm in charge of electronic related items like chargers, camera tripod (which looks like a triglyceride, for those who haven't heard me say so already), adaptor and so on.

Have been having a relatively time now compared to the craziness of the early post exam period. Have gone to play LAN a few times with my OG, and seen Moses become better and better at his game haha... The initial thrill kinda died off after I spent the previous session just being Glen's helo pilot. He got all the kills tsk tsk while I had the satisfaction of squeezing the helicopter into all the small spaces.

Also had an anat group outing with about half of them. Haha its quite satisfying to be part of the group. I mean, I doubt many other groups are as closely bonded as we are, probably cos during the trunk segment of anat Prof Bay helped to precipitate the unilateral suanning of the anat group rep heh which I must say I found highly amusing. Still, it served to pull the group very closely together, as Prof Ng in the third segment could tell.

So games was fun and the bbq was funner heh. I discovered that I could STILL play tennis. Maybe that disastrous game at PGP was more of the exception than the norm heh.

Ok am not thinking very straight cos my mind keeps drifting to what I may have forgotten to pack. But nevertheless, happy travelling to Matilda, Yukit, Daniel, Bingyi, Joseph and all the other people flying to their various destinations =)

2008-05-14T22:12:00.002+08:00

PDCP's been pretty... interesting. Though I've been occasionally sleepy during the lects, the tutorials are pretty fun. I have a good group with a great number of people I know including the likes of KEVIIans Melvin Tan, Ami, Amanda Zain, Liesel, Wing Yee, OG mate Elin, fencer Daelen and newly made acquaintences Yi Zhe (Through playing BF2 together) and Jon Sng (MUNUS)

We were very blessed to have a good tutor as well who put up with our noise and made things generally interesting.

On one hand, I am VERY scared about my Biochem results. I have no doubt at all one day I will be a doctor but I'm not sure how many years I will take to get there. Everyone I know says I'll be ok. I hope I don't pull another stunt like my Chinese papers and let everyone down again.

On the other hand, have been having a pretty amusing time. Played LAN yesterday for the first time in my life =) And as a bonus, it was Battlefield 2 which I played in the not too distant past. Even before that I had been playing the Desert Combat Mod of BF1942 itself, which was quite hard, quite frustrating and the helicopters were nigh uncontrollable.

Everything came back to me when I sat down there that day and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I hadn't lost my helo flying skills, esp when I managed to pick Yi Zhe up from the water by hovering JUST above him =D

Oh and playing as a medic rocks... I should also commend:

Glen for being an excellent helo gunner
Julia for being a great anti-tanker

though of course Pek and Jiayi did well by jumping into the helo whenever called for =D

Yesterday was also my father's birthday. Had a small birthday celebration, what with my sister away and my brother unavailable... It happened also that none of us really knew how to use the new camera, so I had to take pictures for my parents first cos we didnt know how to set the timer.

Then I stumbled across something which I thought was the timer. We set it for 8 (seconds, or so we thought), then I pressed the shutter. And yes it was a timer. I jumped up and ran behind my parents for the photos. And that was when I bumped into the small table behind my parents and the huge pile of phone directories on it began to slide.

And the camera flashed. And again. And again! For we had not set 8 seconds on the timer, but for the camera to take a burst of 8 pictures. So we had 8 pictures of us jumping up trying to save the telephone directories, rushing to the camera to see what was wrong and (me) howling with laughter =Pp

Certainly's been a memorable past three days. Japan's coming!!

2008-05-10T22:02:00.002+08:00

MUNUS was pretty eventful and unforgettable. Thanks to Medsoc who've been losing sleep etc over it. Though its not over until tomorrow anyway...

Friday Julia and I went to watch frisbee and netball. It was soooo cool the way the pro frisbee players can manipulate their frisbee... Like "some UFO, you understand" in Daniel Hap's words.

Today was very memorable.

Handball started early in the morning, and against a Malaysian team which was about KE's standard (compared to NUS Medfac which was below heh) I managed to turn in a pretty decent performance. Thought it was going to be easy until a Malaysian player released a scorcher to the corner (shades of Eusoff Hall) which I contacted with my third and fourth fingers. I dunno whether I deflected it (I'd like to think so), but it glanced off the bar and behind the goal to my relief. It was darn scary.

Their right winger was their only threat (kinda like C. R o naldo) cos his fast break was ultra siao. The first time, Li Heng managed to force him into a corner so that I could stop the shot but Cadet Hee didn't manage to take the rebound, so Mr. Right Winger opened his three steps and shot home. They were really good. Before long they were 3-0 up, every single shot from the 6m line. Zzzzz.

But I was very very happy, cos in the next 12 or so minutes, Mr. RW fast broke twice and both times I saved the one-on-one hahahahahah =DD Am very elated with that, timed the run out perfectly if I say so myself =D As well as a diving stop from a 9m throw. And on the other end, Hanjie and Li Heng scored to make it 3-2 at halftime.

In the next half I was not playing and neither was Hanjie cos he'd gone to play badminton. I think the team missed him more than me cos, it was pretty chaotic and we got whacked 12-4 but at least at the end of the day I only conceded 1/4 of the goals. Mr RW scored all but one of the remaining shots I think... But as I said I was very happy cos the shots I let in were all point blank and not stupid 9m shots...

Next was futsal against M3s which went ok until when jumping for a highball, the M3 I was competing with (who to me, was about the size of a small whale) bowled me over like a insect hitting a car at high speed and tapped in the ball BEFORE I COULD EVEN TOUCH IT. Proves the point that I'm too light to be a good soccer keeper. Better handball with your own private 6m zone =D

Then was the most unforgettable moment of the day. A guy named Joel (who turned out to be the Medsoc Sports Secretary OMGoodness) asked me to referee girls' handball. It proved to be very tiring cos both sides were wearing black and really had to run like free (unlike the players I had no substitutions heh). But refereeing foil matches really helped to keep concentration and after a few mistakes at the start then I managed to get into a smooth rhythm.

May I also say that it was ironically appropriate that I was refereeing this match cos I am half-Malaysian myself =D

The Malaysian keeper was surprisingly good even though she was really small (a fact exploited by the tall NUS shooters), but managed to keep the score difference at only 1 or 2 goals apart. This proved to be decisive cos UM equalized in the last 2 minutes -_-"' which I was hoping wouldn't happen cos I was from NUS and cos I was getting really tired.

Refereeing was pretty interesting cos the nature of this game was that it didn't need many halts like in IHG. For one thing, clamping was few and when it occured, was highly ineffective. No one was totally immobilized and most still managed to pass the ball out, so I didn't have to blow for 9 meters..

But anyway when it came down to penalties, it transpired that while one of our NUS girls was shooting (a very good shot it was too, into the corner), her foot crossed the penalty line. I called the foul and asked her to retake the shot which was saved. And ultimately, though it wasn't a crucial call cos we were already trailing, it wasn't a very pleasant one to say the least. Especially when it was made in front of a lot of people (including what seemed like half of the organizers) and a lot of people who knew me at least by name.

Sigh. Seems like a lot of people expected me to turn a blind eye to what seems like a minor infringement, but I guess my OG people know I'm particular about these kinda things huh... Oh well. So much for "serving with pride, honour and integrity"

But on the whole MUNUS was good in that I made quite a number of new friends across the levels, at least by sight. And made a new Malaysian friend as well, though I guess it'll be a long time if ever we see each other.

Hopefully, will have time and energy to go to KL for MUNUS 09 =D

2008-05-06T01:13:00.004+08:00

One Simple Picture: YET another SJ-related post

In the post-exam breeze, I was looking through Facebook when I came across this picture in one of my friend's albums.

The only picture of my whole squad as NCOs, definitely the only one taken after we were promoted to corporal. Long long ago in an era when the NCO's chevron was still attached to the right sleeve via studs rather than on the shoulderboards as it is today. The copy shrunk down to fit Facebook standards was of pretty poor quality, but I still remember the day this picture was taken.

It was on the very day we had our final promotion. And can anyone doubt the sense of achievement that everyone showed. We had been anticipating getting massacred by our seniors for the whole week ever since they told us to "leave us two hours to carry out an activity". And even though there was communication breakdown and quite a bit of disruption in the chain of command during the whole tekan session, in the end everything managed to fall into place.

The picture just brought back a whole rush of emotions deriving from those last few months in AHSJAB. Joy, accomplishment, relief, sadness.

So much for the emotions. Yet there was still the most important thing of all.

This is nothing to do with being an NCO, running out the NCO life, accomplishments or anything. It was just a feeling of being honoured.

Honoured to be part of the elite AHS division, the CCA with the best discipline, the best drill, the greatest esprit de corps. Only last year after coming into uni and having occasion to read "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose then I found what I wanted to say. It was like, we (me and Wei Lun at least), loved to complain about our SJ lives, but it was a proud kind of complaining. It was more like "We routinely go through hell and we're so good at taking hell that we can be casual about it AND find common ground with each other" more than anything. And what a common ground that was.

Honoured to be part of my squad. For me, as an individual, it was my squad as a member, as well as my squad as their Squad IC, for that was what was encompassed in my duties. Squad 4 '04 was really a melting pot of sorts. There were those whom you could rely on, those whom you wouldn't trust, those loud and enthusiastic, and those so quiet you would never believe they were part of a uniform group until you saw them lift the heavy PT logs or, in Squad 4, blow their top at an unfortunate cadet. You can't tell who in the picture matches which description can you =)

This picture shows the people who sustained me as a cadet. Just take the following as examples:

A. A little guy who prevented me from walking into a home nursing room in SJ HQ with hmmm a part of my clothing not adequately fastened.

B. Another whom I nearly strangled while trying to help him put on his bag at St. John HQ.

C. A third who marched with me in the National Day parade despite having a fever.

D. Yet another who patiently called me to give me messages every week for 3 years (Until the 4th and I called everyone)

The list goes on. These were the people who sneaked words of encouragement to you while you were in pumping position, blood rushing to your head, or shaking in ranger position, every sacral nerve seemingly compressed beyond repair. They are the ones who laughed and cried with you during squad discussions. The ones whose hands bled and blistered on the parade square and on the rubber grips of the stretcher with yours. They were the ones whom you watched from the windows of SJ HQ, when they had gone for competition and you couldn't, but you willed them on and you knew they could do it.

These also were the people who tied scalp bandages on your head so tightly you couldn't think, then realised they had done a dead knot instead of a reef knot.

As an NCO, I acknowledge the times which I felt like causing grevious harm to different squadmates were in fact, not infrequent, as NCO life turned out to be more convoluted than expected, but at the end of the day, I realised that the opportunity to use this group of people who knew each other intricately well was a rare opportunity and a responsibility not taken lightly. I leave my performance for others to vet. I know my squadron did the best they could do.

Heh one photo throws up so many emotions, but it was nice to relieve those memories for a short while.

2008-05-01T15:46:00.005+08:00

Signed up for MUNUS handball. Wonder how it'll be like. If the referees are of the standard of the intra-fac Med standard, life won't be worth living =/ in any case, seeing the standard of handball in Medfac, I don't give much for our chances of lasting against the MU component of MUNUS. Still, if they are of EH standard I should still be able to do some good.

Remembering that my last few games in KE weren't too good and that I was all stiff and inflexible from the exams, I broke out my tennis balls and went to practise in the garden using a ball and a wall. Went pretty well. Moved and dove until I was dizzy then rested. Moved and dove until I kicked my forearm while lunging for the ball. Decided to call it a day.

Behold the risorius, depressor anguli oris and the rest of it heh. The physical manifestation of sympathetic stimulation

Life has been nice and quiet, besides occasionally rushing out to do Japan stuff (or like two days ago, having a fun time with my OG eating free ice cream aside from other things). Playing KOTOR 2 as a Jedi Consular is so much easier at the latter stages of the game compared to the other classes. One Force Wave or Force Lightning and everything goes down =/ no challenge. Haha I know my friends from SMU and NTU are similarly winding down from their academic year, leaving those in NUS feeling singularly disgusted.

Am warming up my driving muscles again. Yesterday's one was horrible and my instructor was highly unamused. I'm as good a driver as Kokpun is a pedestrian crossing Geylang Road. Got shot down for looking down to glance at my odometer while trying to reach half clutch, cos it was raining and I couldn't hear my engine revving. What a nut I am.

While talking to Ruth though, I discovered that I've unconsciously mixed up the nerve to the medial pterygoid and the nerve to the mylohyoid. My study group from the KE study room would be soo disgusted.

Some things have been happening these few days which are best left unsaid too.

2008-04-27T14:02:00.003+08:00

Church service today rounded off a very dramatic week. Let me recall the things I did, fun and not:

1. Fun - Learnt to play squash on tuesday

2. Not fun - Hit Theng Wai in the eye with a squash ball 45 min after (1.) started

3. Fun - Games with OG at PGP. Re-discovered a bit of my table tennis skills which provided entertainment in church and BMT. Unfortunately the nature of the table, lack of a net and sheer rustiness meant I was quite lousy

4. Not fun - Dived on my water bottle while trying to save a ball. The carabiner went right into my axillar and sent a rush of blood to my brain

5. Fun - Rediscovered playing tennis with Jiayi in PGP. Haven't played since sec. 2. Predictable level of performance

6. Fun - Dinner and the vaunted Island Creamery with OG. Ran into Amanda, Joella + other Urakus there. Guess only the Med people are up and about at this time of the year heh.

7. Fun - Playing Risk and helping Celeste punch out of Australia all the way to India heh. Watching Melvin's 1 pathetic infantry fellow hold off 6 people from Joseph's army. Sheer luck tsk =D

8. FUN - Food trail with hall people across singapore. Encountered hypernatremia, diabetes and hypertension-on-plates. Fattening but fun. In compensation,

9. Fun - Played squash and table tennis with hall people. Am bad at squash. Am getting better at table tennis

10. NOT FUN - walked into the comm hall glass door. Got a pretty baluku. It's still there. Didn't manage to make a witty comeback against Yukit when she called me a few derogatory names for that incident heheh...

11. Fun - Out with Japan trippers at Glen's house. Ate a lot. Played a lot. Planned a bit. Watched "The Transporter 2", which now ranks among my top few most unlikely movies (Along with Die Hard 4 and The Lake House), but nevertheless very fun

12. Funner - Didn't get any vivas. Thank God. I was so scared on thurs and fri whenever my phone rang.

Life is pretty good. All the best to the rest of the NUS population for your exams =) It'll be over soon! And all the best to my juniors in their Med application

2008-04-24T01:54:00.002+08:00

Am in hall now for the KE M1 gathering which comprises of 3 days of eating, sports and intermediate activities heh. Been fun so far. Got to spend a decent amount of time with my OG too.

But still, this shadow hangs over me, even though I know the God who looks out for me, and did so through PSLE, Os, As, and Medicine Admission is always doing so

I wonder what the next 48 hours will bring.

2008-04-21T18:07:00.002+08:00

Just a thought: One of the most special and touching things about AHSJAB's handovers is watching the graduating batch finally realising what splendid friends they have been surrounded with over 4 gruelling years, the miracle of such friendship bred through joy and definitely a lot of pain =)

2008-04-21T02:21:00.003+08:00

Life has been quite weird since pros ended. Despite being scared of results, I didn't bring anything back with me from hall on friday, the result being I had a VERY restful weekend. Wanted to cycle the 42 km on my own just for the fun of it (since young I liked cycling around on my own, but of course I don't mind company either), but was too lazy.

In any case, on saturday I managed to sleep 13 hours! So my sleep debt's paid off.

Anyway, to elaborate on post exam activities: Had a Japanese lunch with my OG then went to watch the Lake House in one of those rented rooms in cineleisure. We watched while MedWeiLun banged away at his opponents on counterstrike, and Glen was yelling expletives in various languages and blasphemous words of various religions while playing DOTA against Jason and Moses heh... It pretty much summed up the diverse personalities of my OG. Pictures are with Julia and in facebook, so I shan't bother to upload yet anyway...

Like I said a few posts ago, its nice to see classmates as living, breathing, friends again rather than androids trying to compete against papers =)

The Lake House was a pretty interesting show, though after I figured it out it became quite predictable. Though there's that thing about changing history and temporal paradox (nothing to do with the brain, its a artistic term), I don't bother too much and just take it as a rather unique love story hahah...

The night was very interesting. Back to KE with Pek and ThengWai. Room draw. Though my mind was quite numb cos I was still quite worried about the so-called ovulation of my follicles (see the last post), I must thank God that I got exactly where I wanted, F206 directly above my present room. Familiar environment, but I guess with a tad more oxygen. I could have gone to E4 if I had wanted to, but nah, I'll stick with Blue rather than Black.

Ah and floorball with some of the Medics and the KE floorball members. I discovered I can run quite fast, but am capable of missing a goal at 2 meters =D All the goals I scored (and there weren't many - I'm not used to scoring goals) were from running through the defence and rolling the ball into the net hahah... Ray noted I had a very high tendency to hit the post given a clear and point-blank shot =Pp Ray, Michael and Amanda's skills with the ball are like whoa

So am not a very good floorball player, but it was fun (brought back all the memories of JC days when we had guy-on-girl competitions and Gerry was dancing around yelling "Kill the guys! Kill the guys!" heh). Am seriously contemplating joining up next year, see how first....

Surprisingly, on sunday afternoon I had occasion to revise anat again, cos my mother was studying the extra ocular muscles, and I was lounging about watching Band of Brothers, so she asked me to come over to "help her revise". It turned out pretty hilarious, with the two of us using a huge gymball as a giant eyeball and me (being the "young flexible one") attaching my limbs to various parts of the ball and pulling to see what movements we got.

Demonstrating the inferior oblique required me to lie on my back with my arms stretched above my head grabbing the back of the ball diagonally.Diao.

Well shall go off to sleep now then. Cheerio!

2008-04-19T16:16:00.003+08:00

Pros are over. Anyone who blog hops around the blogs of various Med students will know that much. But well, never count your follicles before they ovulate. Results are yet to come. Am praying that I'll pass cleanly. There are many ifs which only God knows.

I've been in St. John for 8 years now, 5 of which I've seen the handovers, seen the berets fly after the graduating squad does its final parade. Of the three I couldn't come, it was due to sickness, fencing and NS in that order.

Of the 5 that I was present, 2 was as a cadet, 2 I actually participated in the post-parade tekan-ing (recall, KokKeng and his encounter with the water from the AHS fountain heh), and of course, the most memorable one of which my own squad was part of. Seeing handover as a cadet, an NCO and a senior gives many different perspectives.

Still, things have changed a lot. Maybe I flatter my squad to say that we had one of the most variable experiences in our course of duty. We experienced the old way, the Friday afternoon hell, where a CCA with less than 30 push ups was almost non-existent. We had the period of transition, and we had a taste of the new culture to come before we graduated. It was 3 CCAs after our handover before Soo yee and I first punished anyone.

We experienced victory in competition (Recall watching my squadmates, just sec 2, mere privates, crossing swords, or should I say, bandages, with the sergeants and corporals of the other corps). We also experienced loss, in what our seniors called "our best category" no less.

We experienced the old August-august work year, then suddenly the new June-june one was sprung on us. How Jiayan, Wei Quan, Wei Lun, Soo Yee, Evelyn and the others frantically tried to cook up a plausible new work year to satisfy our seniors (who at that time didn't hesitate to punish the NCOs, even in front of cadets as I recall). And of all the things which happened during our term, the thing we left our mark on the most, was in fact not competition, but in HP.

All the different experiences perhaps gives us a jaded point of view for the division. Like "we did it, why can't they" attitude, which may or may not be good. Sure, we have a wealth of experience which few others can match, but I'm sure no NCO batch likes to hear repeated exhortations of "In my year hor, we......"

The point is, St. John now for cadets, NCOs and even seniors, is nothing like what I remember it to be. I guess that's not so much important cos our most outstanding job is still that of being able to treat anything from a mere abrasion to a greenstick fracture. Of being drilled until our body takes over automatically when we see someone injured.

I do not respect the latter batches less. Every batch has its own challenges which I'm sure they will remember for life. Similarly, each batch has people whom I would trust if I had them as comp team mates, as well as people whom I wouldn't want to do PD with at a school fire drill. That said, I would never train a competition team unless I respected their members and felt they deserved to be trained. My tolerance for slackness is has quite a low threshold haha.

Its just that maybe I'm getting old and inflexible. Change is not all bad, but its something I cannot get used to so easily. But there, I've been one of the most unorthodox people in SJ, so my opinions usually are a bit skewed.

Its gonna be an interesting year ahead. I'll leave it to Ncomp before deciding what my fuure commitment should be.

2008-04-14T23:28:00.003+08:00

The first bout of the tournament is always the hardest. As you step up to the piste all sorts of nonsense is running through your head.

As you plug in the wire you wonder if your blade is working

As your blade is tested you wonder whether you can remember how to fence

As you test your jacket / guard against the opponent's you wonder just what kinda person he is. Will he use length to hit? Does he fence fast? Is he a flecher or a lunger? You've never seen him before, and if you beat him, you'll probably never see him again for the tournament.

How will he attack you and how can you defend yourself or thrash him in turn!?

So much hinges on the first match. The your morale, how fast you warm up. And yet, once "Allez" is given, you may just pull off a brilliant match, maybe even cause an upset. Or you may find yourself flailing against an opponent who is too fast, too tall, too proficient. Or worst, you may find yourself suddenly inept, making ineffective parries, attacking out of ranging, pulling back from too far in, generally looking like an idiot in the face of an opponent who's actually easy

Yet in every tournament there are only two things to be done. One is to put all those thoughts out of your mind. You've trained a year, two full semesters for this match. You may not be as good as your contemporaries, but surely you can survive.

The other is to pray and trust in God. When your back is to the wall (or should I say, to the 2m warning area), that's all you can do. Pray, stay positive and keep fencing. Here we go. 3 days and we'll be through

"Great are you Lord, mighty in strength
You are faithful, you will ever be"
-How Awesome is the Lord most High, Chris Tomlin

2008-04-12T02:48:00.003+08:00

The price being paid for being a medical student is feeling rather painful at the moment.

Had a rather eventful morning when I woke up rather late (courtesy of having slept around or past 3 am for the past 3 days) and went to the toilet, which usually being so clean, chose today (or rather, yesterday) to have a fit and release its contents over the floor.

Having come into the toilet bleary eyed and my hair stylishly arrayed with a genuine out-of-bed look, I beheld the floor covered with scummy water with black stuff floating about. So stoned was I that I didn't move but just kinda stood there breathing in and out quite heavily to confirm that the stuff there was really, olfactoraly, what I thought it to be.

That thought having taken a saunter down my neurons, I actually debated whether to go into BMT mode, where I stuck my body parts into all sorts of unimaginable places in the course of cleaning the Platoon 1 toilet, and cold bloodedly go and brush my teeth.

But naturally, in the end, discretion was the better part of valour and thinking that it was too early in the day (actually it was past 11) to tangle with intestinal waste products, I retreated blearily to F3 instead.

The day is pretty routine. Wake up, study a bit, get a message from a fellow M1 (Kokpun, Thengwai, Amanda) about going to lunch, EAT, spend the whole afternoon in the study room, EAT, back to the study room, study till 2 am then go back to F106, EAT biscuits then sleep (I'm eating biscuits now heh).

Note the EAT in CAPS, cos eating is just about the highlight of the day. Besides that its spent in this little world comprising 1 table, a laptop, and piles of paper and stuff. =( Occasionally you reach out of your world, ask another M1 a question, then retreat back to your own little space.

Getting to talk normally to one another during meals is akin to seeing all your squadmates again after NCO course haha.

But the fact is, I'm terrified for Biochem. We found the bell curves for the CAs online. My anat is average, my physio, surprisingly, ranges from average to slightly above (how did that happen when I'm so blur when answering Ray and Thengwai's questions in the study room??), but my Biochem is baddd. Seems impossible that people pass.

Its like going for a critical epee bout in priority time with your opponent having priority! Its hard, its do or die, you have one chance, and elimination from this tournament is going to prove rather costly. And I'm not really sure what my opponent's gonna throw at me, cos his profile has been one of MCQs in the CAs, compared to the MEQs and EQs he's gonna show now. As for me, I'm not really sure what attack pattern to use also.

AhhhhhhhhHhhh =(

Ah heck. Anyway I'll just see what happens. I recall a message from a friend in JC saying "our heavenly father will never leave you nor forsake you", something which I have to keep remembering.

Guess I only can do my best right, then its up to God. So not all the exploding toilets in the hall will keep me from mugging my brains out in this last stretch!

2008-04-08T10:54:00.003+08:00

A totally random post:

One of the most humiliating experiences I had as a kid occured when I was in Primary 5. Just after streaming. On the second day of school.

In front of all my new classmates! Horror of horrors.

It wasn't the usual "forgot-your-textbook-and-get-thrown-out-of-class", nono, not even the notorious hokkien huay guan teachers (which actually weren't that bad) were that mean on the first few days of school haha... It was far more mundane.

It was when my form teacher asked me (who, by virture of my height, or lack thereof, was sitting right in the centre, right in the front of the class as per normal) to help her lower the OHP screen. I was so taken aback because no teacher ever asked me to do this before. To me, the Lowering of The OHP Screen was only done by a privileged few who were, invariably, tall, garang, loud, and male, 4 qualities of which I only had the latter one.

So up I got, slowly. Slowly. Walked to the front of the class wondering why no one was saying anything. Maybe they thought it was normal, maybe they were just being polite. But I kinda knew what the outcome was. It's a simple fact that until I went to St. John in sec. 1 I was a very very unfit little boy. I could run my (then) 1.6 km faster than anyone in the class save for one boy from atheletics, but I couldn't jump, an occasion which this task called for.

So there was I, all alone, a tiny fellow all of 1.35 m (I still remember my height cos I was shorter than the shortest girl in my class, who's height was 1.355, a difference which she never let me forget) against the towering OHP string, wondering why they didn't make longer strings which reached the ground.

Up I leapt. My hand brushed the string. And again. I am so sure that it was the passing wind of my hand which caused the string to move. By now the titters behind me were fast becomig audible. I'm pretty sure I was vasodilating with agitation and embarrassment, but thinking that what one arm couldn't accomplish maybe the other could.

Up I went with my left hand. Missed. Flailing about in mid air was hardly the most glam of positions. I can only imagine what it looked like from the seated audience.

I tried, I really did, but the whole thing ended with the arrival of my teacher who said "okok, I've got it, thanks" and oh-so-casually drew down the OHP screen. I went back to my seat smiling bemusedly with my classmates barely concealing their mirth. Such is the quality of the things one finds amusing in primary school.

While we're on that, I always sat in front of my class all the way until sec. 4, except for the first few days of sec. 3. After that in JC I had an aversion to sitting in the front row and usually relegated myself to the back or to the second row heh. I'm still shorter than all my guy primary school classmates, and mostly shorter than the general population of males in Singapore my age. But I'm now taller than my teacher (and hopefully most of the girls in my class)

But it was nice, for that short while, for someone to actually believe that I could do something which I never believed myself to. I also dunno why I'm writing this. Maybe there's some deep moral which I could learn from it. But until then, Biochem calls to me =)

2008-04-04T13:45:00.005+08:00

2004: VJC Fencing is set up
2005: 1st ever medal won at U17s
2006: 1st ever gold medal, 1st ever team medal, 1st A-division gold
2007: 1st ever girls' medal, 1st ever team gold medal, 2nd A-division gold
2008: 1st ever girls' team medal, 1st ever B-division medal

Every year something new happens. Had been praying so hard that something would show for all the effort put in this year, and lo and behold, the hard work paid off, on a wing and a prayer. It does not surprise me that not a batch goes by where someone does not win a medal. For a club which only does 1 weapon (though now foil is beginning to appear here and there), it's a pretty good record.

I never thought I'd see the sight of the teachers jumping up and down yelling encouragement to the fencers together with the supporters. I recall one particular incident when the girls were fencing their team event against XJC, and there was a whole crowd of victorians screaming their heads off with each point scored, and scoring quite well they were too. The teacher-in-charge of XJC asked his students "Why are they cheering so loud? They've been losing all the way arh?" and the student replied "I guess must be lor".

The VJ SCs and I who were sitting pretty near them kinda snorted into our palms at the statement as VJ went on to take a pretty convincing win. But no, it was VJ coming back to its normal hard-fighting, hard-cheering self.

At the end of the day, it was a pretty good result and there are so many things I would like to say, but some things are best left to the pictures and to the memories, to be passed down to junior batches for their own inspiration.

VJ Fencing is slowly forming into a formidable CCA with a formidable record which rivals the other sports. The goal which Daniel, Maurice, Victoria, I and the other 05-06 fencers is being worked toward in fine tradition =)

VJC Fencing on the last day of A-division, with teachers, coaches and seniors

2008-04-02T22:58:00.002+08:00

First time I nearly cried during a fencing tournament, but it was cos I was so happy at one point =) It was fine to see all the VJ people cheering, the fencers, the teacher, the student councilors. I never thought I'd see the day!

Well still must keep at the membrane potentials and the gastrointestinal tract though... yuckz...

2008-03-30T18:00:00.002+08:00

Annoyed annoyed tsktsk

Fever's abated, thank God (and my thanks to those who asked after me), but am left with a very very very deep voice, even more monotonous than usual, and I'm just prepared for the high-pitched voice stage over the next few days, which I hope doesn't materialize cos its ultra humiliating and just serves to provide my friends entertainment...

Couldn't sing very well in church today (I acknowledge that usually I don't sing extremely well either, but hey, God doesn't listen to how nice the voice is, but to the person behind the voice), and the old computer which I was in charge of didn't improv my mood either...

I can't study!! I'm somewhere in Blood now, and I can feel my foil calling out to me (which is a definite sign that I'm getting better), but nono...must study.... studyyyyyy

2008-03-29T17:26:00.002+08:00

Hooray application for KE got through. Looks like I'll be staying next year. I really really really really hope pros go well cos I'm really really really really looking forward to the next year (as well as the trip to Japan, Medicamp, and all the other things which come in between)

Anyway my bid to study hard this week kinda crashed, cos no sooner than my holiday mood was winding down and I started out on CVS, a twinge of feeling unwell came on wednesday with a sore throat, which turned into a full-blown fever by Friday. But after sleeping excessively the past few days, looks like my immune system's winning.

Bleah, Thursday night was horrible.Kept waking up coughing with an already-raw throat. Irritating... And I felt that I was sneezing out all my hard-absorbed knowledge...

I also had occasion to experience a dream in which I was taking my pros and it turned out one of our tracks was a MATHS PAPER about some ultra cheem topic, and then I couldn't do a SINGLE question and turned in a blank paper, while after the exam everyone was talking about how easy it was o_0!!! Horror of horrors! I think I'm giving myself stress subconsciously even though the last few days my thoughts have been very sluggish.

So have managed to accomplish just CVS and respi in the past week (and I think I'm going to have to look through them again by the time pros arrive). Will return to hall tomorrow to embark on Biochem and Anat (especially the former).

Oh and as for our Anat Group Outing, it was a very fun return to the old haunt of VJ students: Cycling at East Coast, making the 8 km migration to Changi Airport and back. Even though I did it at least 3 times as a VJ student, it never gets old... Especially now that the new park connectors are all built up. One day I want to do all 40 km, maybe after pros.

The Best Anat Group in the cohort at Bedok Jetty. Check out Bingyi's ultra-faded PE-shirt haha...

Cycling by the sailing club

Along the park connector somewhere between ECP and Pasir Ris park.

At this big structure which they recently constructed along ECP.

Didn't take pictures of the latter part of the outing, when I had the privilege of visiting Daniel's very fun house, as well as to see the inside of a kbox for the first time haha... But nonetheless, the memory of Yukit and ChiaHui trying to kill me with two very pink furry things will linger haha... Happily, the three sabre lessons I had in sec. 4 helped marvellously =D

Well that's it for now... Ahh let the thoughts of Japan spur me on....

2008-03-26T13:05:00.002+08:00

It was a week back, or was it two? that Candice, former RJ fencer and friend from FM, talked to me about how long it was since we went fencing.

Well, I'm finally going back, to FENCE, not just to watch, give advice or fix blades, but to actually go and hit people =Pp hohoho my blood lust has been suppressed so long! Dunno whether I can still remember my fencing hahha..

Anyway, will blog again about the Anat Group Outing that took place on Monday thanks to a rather tenacious YuKit heh

2008-03-22T16:29:00.003+08:00

Had a rather nice afternoon out with a couple of squadmates. Xuan Ming, Wei Lun and I went to watch the Zone Competition, albeit a while only for the original AC2 cadets heh. Wei Lun had to go somewhere, I had to go to Raffles City to buy my shoes. But well, hope that they can do what they have to do. AHS has been surprising me in the past few competitions, hopefully they still do.

Wei Lun also returned me my CD with all the photos of our Sec. 1 days in them. Wahhh all the memories that come back! I was so TINY I can't believe it haha

Some pictures from the last crazy week...

The busy study room, with laptops, papers, drawingblocks, books and a solitary skull strewn all over. Not to mention a few Medical Students haha...

Oh fatigue, fatigue, in all it's un-glamour =D

Talk about playing Stand, Sit, Bend. The three studying poses, some nearer to heaven than others (some nearer the lightning strikes too for that matter)

"Ray. How many times I told you not to play with scissors!" Michael's disapproving rejoinder to Ray's arm-warming antics was so chillingly lame that we stunned for about 5 seconds before we could even laugh =D

Well, am exceedingly grateful to this group of people for accompanying me during the exam period (as well as putting up with my rather inept knowledge of everything except Anatomy). Now's for a good break before jumping back in!

Haha... welll that's all for now then. Outing on Monday with the people who routinely sabo me every wednesday! I hope it doesn't rain!

2008-03-21T01:59:00.003+08:00

Thank God CAs are over and I think I passed everything.

I now acknowledge that my Biochem is far below the class average. Still, if I treat it like an epee match, it means I only have to win each bout by a few points to pass haha..

Had a great time out with my OG. But when we went to watch Step Up 2 I couldn't stop thinking about how break dancing definitely damages your articular cartilage haha...

Just some thoughts from a handball goalkeeper:

There are 3 rings of defence around you.

1. The reflex ring, which you can save by standing still and waving your limbs

2. The stretching ring, which can be saved by reaching. Requires bending at the waist.

3. The diving ring, when you must do a full dive.

The *beep* girl's ball today eluded my grip so many times that even though I could save a few point blank shots by reflex I just couldn't get to those in the corners. And with respect to the female seniors who gave me advice (which I appreciate), guys really play a much faster game, and everything I used to learn in training about the sideways shuffle etc couldn't work in IHG where everything was going at double speed.

But wearing tracks AND long socks underneath definitely increases the protection. I shall wear them long term =)

Anyway am slightly incoherent now... Shall sleep. Hooray for a weekend's break =) Blessed easter!

2008-03-18T14:51:00.002+08:00

Sigh. Spots was painful I feel like sending this to Prof Ng

Dear Prof Ng,

On behalf of Anat Group 1:Ouch

Regards,
Jonathan

Haha mannnn so many things that weren't in the past years. Am so totally dead for histo. Only knew like 3 slides (no I'm not kidding), and one of them was told to us what structure it was already.

To cap it all off, I created two very loud sounds during the paper. The stools at the histo stations were so infernally high, then the resting stations had LOW stools instead. So when I passed a rest station and sat down, I thought it would still be a high stool. As a result I relaxed by backside too early. My body went in one direction, my clipboard in another and my paper in a third. And WanYing was behind be chuckling away heh...

Second time was when Prof Tay walked into the table where I was examining the specimen. The rolling table banged into me with predictably explosive results. Haha I don't like to be touched when my nerves are being stretched.

Sigh anyway on to Biochem for...

2008-03-14T02:51:00.003+08:00

It was great meeting my junior class today =) Could connect pretty well with all of them despite the long absence cos, as Chris put it, I was the "one who's in uni and also has gone through NS".

All the guys seemed to be raring to go into OCS which I found amusing and at the same time, an attitude which was really good haha... I know a lot of people were trying to shy away from Command School after hearing of frightful things like Brunei and Spade =D

A few of them want to come into Med and I honestly feel that they have it in them to do so! It'll be so cool to have them as my juniors (provided I pass my pros!! AHhhh!! There's so much at stake to study for!!). And of course, some of them are coming to NUS... It'll always be nice to see familiar faces around haha... Dare I hope that some of them would come to KE? x)

The happiest I ever am is when I'm back with my VJ friends, either from 15, my junior class, or the fencers. Maybe its just a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I think the emotional gap between uni and JC is larger than between JC and SJAB (probably cos I could still see my SJ juniors so often!). I think for my juniors, I have a separate set of fond memories linked with them. Definitely not as much as my own class, but I'm pretty sure the relationship between our junior class and us was much closer than that between us and our senior class.

We all grow up so fast. The tiny Wen Bin whom I welcomed to St. John on a dark and rainy Friday afternoon, and the nervous Clarice and Y Li Ting whom I escorted to buy uniform parts at Beach Road are now all in JC, my batch is less than a year for ORD (well, most of us anyway, sorry Wei Lun! and I of course, ORD in 2014-15 or something)

Well, its late and I must sleep... Found an incredibly nice song which I stumbled on completely by accident.

But I will walk 500 miles
And I will walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walks a thousand miles
To fall down at your door
-I'm Gonna Be (500 miles), The Proclaimers

2008-03-11T20:18:00.002+08:00

Everyone's been asking me about Selangor... In retrospect, it was a tournament which I was really ill-prepared for, and my fencing standard was one reverted back to my 2006 U-20's level. Or maybe worst...

What Freddy said about my foil attacks being too predictable became too true during Selangor, still lacking the final "burst". This is a trait I didn't know I was lacking, since I spent most of my three years fencing epee, in a VJ team where every guy (except Jon Boon) was taller than me, hence cultivating a style of "go fast, go hard and go closer". However, though a long lunge is still important, the final attack need not have the "burst", since I was usually using bladework and my first two intentions to chase the guy back, and distract him with, something which worked well even with Ken (and with Maurice on good days haha)

But for the one-hit-one-kill foilists, my attacks were easy to pick off. When I came close, my close quarters could still move faster than theirs, but I only came close once or twice.

Still, we live and learn. I've got to settle down into a regular rhythm of studying, fencing, as well as handball, hallplay etc for next year.

Hope I can find time to go down for A-division, though I think I'll be super stressed when I watch them fence haha...

Well, some photos to come (when I've time to look through properly), I don't want to upload too many and slow down the whole thing also... Physio!

2008-03-10T05:32:00.002+08:00

Am back from Selangor!

Was such a fun trip in general (a great break from mugging, though I did get in a bit of histo).

My competition itself was very screwy. My pool was... maybe a bit on the hard side... Contained a certain very tall Singaporean No. 1, a Selangor state fencer, a Thai national.... Thought I could beat the other Singaporean though. We were fencing until the score was 3-3 (he totally walked into my stop hits and my six-CQC moves), but then he won 5-3. Later I asked him how long he fenced and he said 8 years!!! My goodness... For an 3 year fencer I think my learning curve is still steeper...

Point to note though... The Thai guy also wasn't that good, but I think I was mentally drained after getting whacked by everyone else, so I didn't really fence my best... Coach said that I "wasn't my usual self"noting that I hadn't trained on the sharp edge for a very long time (NUS simply does not provide the competitive edge).

My juniors from VJ did very very well in my eyes... Will elaborate more later... But am proud of Jon Boon and Co. =)

Took the Aeroline bus back to Singapore at 11.30 pm. Haha first time travelling totally on my own (without anyone at all), even though it was just from Malaysia to Singapore... But the trip was kinda bad cos I was trapped with the person on my right and the person behind me snoring like a colicky GIT.

So I'm back here! Photos to come, meanwhile I shall go and sleep till 7.30...

2008-03-07T12:50:00.003+08:00

10 minutes and I'm booking out of hall to head to Newton.

Spent the afternoon yesterday in the anat museum doing (or trying to, at least) today's practical as well as doing histo with Yukit and WingYee. A bit neither here nor there cos I was kinda tired... But think it still managed to go in... I think too much stuff was squeezed into the last two lectures for it to be really effective.

Anyhow, I'm bringing histo to study with me in M'sia (so there, Amanda =D) in the night when everyone's out, since I don't take too kindly to night markets and alochol (or shopping, for that matter). Probably spend most of the day watching the bouts and helping to do first aid =D

Am kinda excited, but at the same time, have a kinda I-don't-want-to-go-and-be-out-of-contact-with-my-relatives-and-friends heh... Pray for me that the trip home will be smooth cos I'm coming back on my own before the rest due to a long school day on Monday. Speaking of which, that's gonna be the day where my adrenal system is going to be sorely tested =)

But tomorrow, when I'm on the piste in 3 layers of equipment and a live foil in my hand, I'll see just how much, if any, I've forgotten about fencing haha... On a wing and a prayer, a flick and a fleche, a coupe and a croise, I might actually do better than expected =D

Till Monday then, cheerio!

2008-03-04T19:52:00.002+08:00

Happily, am settling down to a routine to mug, eat, mug, sleep etc. Sleep cycle's becoming better too.

But must start competition prep for the weekend. Test blades, buy drinks, pack etc. We're going to the same hotel as the last time haha so I hope I can still remember my way about the area. Pity about having to come back one day early, since the trip is a lot about the friends you're travelling with also, but oh well, gotta do what I gotta do.

Hope I can get at least into the elimination round (the last time I made it through the round of 64 fencing RJ Jonathan before losing in the round of 32). We'll see how it goes. Just don't let me meet some feller who had do double flicks...

Meanwhile, physio's giving me a headache..

2008-02-28T13:14:00.004+08:00

Driving is improving marginally from totally incompetent to being not very good but at least knowing what I'm doing wrong haha...Did three slope starts yesterday and didn't die on any of them. I did stall once when I was on Ubi Ave 3 and a car (qualified driver at the wheel) darted out across to the opposite side and I jammed the brake though.

A little boy also took it upon himself to run into my path while I was accelerating from the traffic light doing a right turn. He n his mum crossed the road already so I was at half clutch moving off when he suddenly ran BACK to pick up something he dropped. My instructor and I both went "ArgH!" and hit our brakes together. Heh the car didn't even stall cos my other foot jammed down the clutch at the same time and we stopped with a safe distance to spare.

But for the next 100m or so my instructor was describing to me how little children are the bane of drivers (besides taxis) and punctuated his tirade with not just a few vivid descriptions of the male reproductive organs.

The thing which I found the most astonishing is the fact that the little boy's mother didn't even react. I mean, her son was virtually asking for it, but I don't think she even noticed he had run back. Which is kinda weird. If it was MY mother at that age she would have her hand grabbing my collar before I got out of a 1 meter radius of her, and gotten a blistering, tympanic plate-eroding talking to.

(Cos it happened once before in the carpark of IMM in Jurong and let me say to my mama, whom I know reads this blog, that I'm very grateful that you grabbed me before I got pulverized like a tomato heh).

Anyway thank goodness I stepped on the correct pedal, or it would have been cutains..

The video clip that came with the last VJC newsletter gave me a rush of memories thinking of the crazy VJ culture which we are all so proud of. It also inadverdantly gave me a glimpse of the inside of the vaunted girls' toilet which, by all accounts, is the equivalent to our V4 one... The videos on VJC in youtube always give me this sympathetic discharge, especially when I watch those of our mass dances (which I'm slowly forgetting sigh), and our own farewell assembly video.

I wonder whether the girls who performed the video know that the song they did was the same one which Mrs C han and Co. performed in the renown Teachers' Day celebration when the teachers instead of students put up the performances =) if so, it's really a cool touch haha...

Also watched my Tango Wing Social Night video screened during service term graduation the past few days. I'm forgetting a number of those people whom I worked with while I was in there (though not my platoon. Well, not yet anyway), and of course, Daniel Hap, Li Heng and the others serve as living reminders here in NUS.

All it took was for Hap to remind me (can't remember what was the random occasion), when the two of us led the section up and down a hill looking for a checkpoint until both of us fell into two consecutive deep holes one after another haha... And how he was panting like an overheated boiler by the time we reached the top. I've never seen greater vasodilation than on OCT Daniel Hap's face on that memorable day in the exercise area =Pp...

Well, shall stop here for now. Enough reminicising (or however it's spelt).

2008-02-25T12:08:00.002+08:00

Now that Pubs Comm has ended (for now) and mugging has started, my room in hall, in the past 12 hours, went from neat to looking like it had been hit by the bomb.

Then again, certain females in my anatomy group will dispute the fact that my room was ever neat in the first place heheheh. Still hey, its not that bad! (Ok now it is).

To cap it all off, I've lost my guitar pick! When I lent my guitar to Shawn Lim aka he-who-thinks-my-name-is-Jeremy, I put the pick in my pocket, and now its gone (Don't worry I won't make any pick-pocket-puns). Dunno where I left it. Arghz.

Anyway, yesterday's Sunday Times about how girls expect guys to do this and that and everything else for them was really funny hahaa cos it was stuff that my sister kept reminding me to do next time when and if I ever got a girlfriend. But then again, if my girlfriend ever asks me to help her carry a pink furry handbag, I think I'll be able to make that a defining moment in my life. Yow. Holding doors open is natural, seeing your date home is natural, but carrying a girl-thing which defines a girl!? That's a bit scary.

My take is that, handbags for girls are supposed to be just for the essentials are they not? Girls carry all their stuff in their handbags, while guys, not being encumbered by having to wear dresses/skirts, carry all THEIR essential stuff in their numerous pockets. By essential stuff I mean, say, a wallet, handphone, MP3, pencil case (yes, when I was in JC I could fit all this into my pockets AND still run from one end of school to the other). If my girlfriend ever wanted me to carry her handbag, I would respectfully request her to put everything else that's excess to this in another non-descript (and non-pink, non-furry) bag which I would very willingly carry.

Then again, sometimes respectful requests don't work x) I don't mind carrying a load, just that I would prefer that the load is not encapsulated by a pink furry parietal layer... It comes under the same thing that a few of my friends found it rather hilarious that I used to use a pink blanket in hall (cos there was no other adequate thermal covering at home). Then again, I can probably be bullied to carry almost anything =/

Haha I may or may not die for this post but oh well, that's what comes of study histo first thing in the morning =D

2008-02-22T22:34:00.002+08:00

The year has really passed very fast. PBL ended on Thursday much to our sorrow. Prof Ding really made things so fun. Then again, such things are best described by Daniel Chan, so read his blog for more..

IHG just finished today also with the closing ceremony and track and field. Haha Yin Rui invited me to the trackkers' supper with them cos I was helping out but I politely declined. There are good friends there but I just don't belong =D Anyway I'm TIRED!! My ATP synthases are just taking their time to ooze out their stuff and I have fencing tomorrow

New coach coming for fencing. I wonder how the thing will go. Maybe I'll drop by FM tomorrow afterwards to pay off my debts. I hope that going for Selangor Open doesn't cost me promotion to Year 2, but just means I must study harder this week!!

Fencing on tuesday was quite interesting... Did 4 back flicks with my new blade, this time in open play not just in point align. This time was chase attack disengage fleche-flick. But still, a simple movement like that's not gonna get anywhere against the top fencers in Singapore, so must develop more before its anywhere effective.

I dunno. I miss the kinda team spirit we had in St. John and the kinda school spirit in VJC. Cheering against SMU or against or against Kent Ridge Hall really makes me pity VJ's opponents at soccer finals haha...

Oh and hmmm.... Hong Ju asked me to be Ticketing Head next year for hallplay, combined with Yue Zhi who's doing publicity, so hopefully its a partnership which will work well, since we managed not to annoy each other this year =) Maybe next year I'll derive more satisfaction from the job...

Ok totally random post... Shall wrap up here for now.. Happy Mid Sem break to my NUS and NTU friends!

2008-02-17T22:28:00.003+08:00

One of the groups of people I feel thoroughly comfortable with in hall. KE's handball team came a long way, to use the cliche, since last year according to the seniors. Hope I can do better for them if I stay next year. Found this really good website for handball training hoho... Thanks, photocomm =)

Eventful saturday. Started with fencing training where I scored my first ever back flick =D Though it was against a freshie. I was point aligned, he lunged, I flicked for his infraspinous region of his scapula and got it waha... The flickiness of the FS blade..

But when I tried it against a more experienced fencer, I died like mad. My more experienced vice-captain didn't think much of flicking against lefties hehe... And cos I kept doing the same thing plus technique not very good I lost 6-7, 3-7 oops... But Pek was very happy that he beat me for the first time =Pp

Then went to watch The Kite Runner with my classmates... Storyline was pretty predictable but very touching all the same, the way everything connected together in the end =) I LOVE the aerial scenes! The kites really seem like birds of prey dogfighting with each other n etc... So it was good movie! Went to check up on fighter kites on wikipedia and its so interesting =D

Hung around Gerry's house for a while watching them eat and discussing various things (cos my aunt came down from malaysia so had to go home n eat). One of the longer lasting subjects was the relative standards of canteen food.

Alon and I condemned the Science Canteen and praised Arts, while Stella protested that Arts wasn't that good and she liked Science canteen food etcetc. Haha I guess everyone after a while has a predisposed bias against the place at which they are eating at the moment. For e.g. during rag, for those of us who'd just come out of the army, the science canteen was really good!

But I guess once you have a bad encounter in the canteen (stalls shall not be named), then it leaves a long lasting impression and certain dishes carry with them bad memories.

For e.g., again, I shall always associate chee cheong fun with the stuff in B M T which I'm convinced is made of rubber, and the paus and lo mai kais which are hard enough to stop an armour attack.

On the other hand, those of us who visit other canteens rarely would make a run on those stalls which are not recommended, since we're not driven by a need to not eat the same stuff everyday (even highly lauded claypot turns a bit tiring after time), hence we're doomed to forever remain biased against our own canteen hahaha =D

I guess the concept of "The-canteen-tastes-better-in-the-other-faculty" is summed by up Liling who said "I think NUS food is better than NTU food... and I haven't even eaten NUS food before!"

Well busy week ahead... Here's to not getting vivaed.

2008-02-15T21:41:00.002+08:00

Tiring tiring week ackz...

Somehow I ended up sleeping very little and somehow managed to still stay awake during lectures. Except for today when the moment I heard "its on IVLE" I went out like a light...

Christl left for Australia on Monday. All the best to her =)

Still the week's had its fun moments... LIke discovering Daniel C and I both knew Christl! Laughing with Liling about various things on the MRT on the way to the airport... And my anat group's various antics throughout a week where we had occasion to run into each other quite a lot.

The highlight of the week for myself was when I was in the Science Canteen demonstrating something which I thought warranted me flinging out my arms in order to emphasize surprise. So in the middle of my fling, I felt something thump into the back of my hand with a "smack" (the sound you get when your hit a closed fist into an open palm).

I jumped around and to my utmost horror was a very bemused guy who's pectoralis major I had just thumped quite hard. I let out a strangled yell which sounded lik "yai!" before saying sorrysorrysorry heheh... And fortunately he sorta muttered its ok before running off... Meanwhile, ChiaHui, Angie and Jade had very helpfully collapsed into the throes of laughter...

The only thing I could think good of the event was that the victim hadn't been a girl or I would never set foot into the science canteen again...

Ahh heck anyway am feeling rather incoherent from lack of sleep and inhalation of too much formaldehyde x) shall push off for now..

2008-02-11T02:02:00.000+08:00

Darn it. Didn't sleep well on sat night, tired in church, slept in the afternoon, now cannot sleep. Tomorrow confirm die.

Anyway, the last week was up and down. Soccer didn't go well. But it seems that 3 years of fencing seems to have matured my thinking with regards to sports more than many people. I respect some of the soccer guys, but to others, I think overconfidence really has no place in a team. Neither has disrespect for each other within the team. If I get to stay in hall next year, I'm not rejoining.

Sorry, you don't need me and I sure don't need more aggravation than school already provides. I don't feel compelled to bleed for those who talk bad about me behind my back.

CNY came at just the right time, when I came down with a flu. Thank goodness I had the time to sleep everything off. If it was during term time, I would just die. But now with a trip overseas with some friends to look forward to in the break, I'm motivated to study. Well, after tuesday certainly.

But still managed my fair share of visiting, eating and putting on fat (and I really need to get more exercise than merely walking up the steps to KE everyday). Handball's organizing nightly runs, I should join them =Pp.

Met up with two groups of old friends on Saturday. Pictures at a later date maybe, since none of them are with me. Could anything be better in one day!!? There we were in Vanessa's house, a bunch of girls, as well as guys who were in NS all over Singapore, from Tekong to the Navy (and one extra guy in NUS heh), and all the old suan-ings etc came out... Xuan Cheng's face when Vanessa offered him a chicken nugget was a sight to see =Pp

And my JC class in Plaza Sing. Christl's leaving for Australia on Monday and ChuaH just came back, so we met up... Though we didn't get to talk that much cos heheh the seating arrangements in the restaurant didn't start out very well, but I must say that

The Staff of Manhatten Fish Market in Plaza Singapura are pretty friendly and accomodating (well to me at least), the food's also not bad. Maybe not as good as Fish and Co, but then again, stuff isn't as expensive heh.

Whenever one of my friends leaves to go overseas, I get the sensation that I'm so old and JC was so in the past =/ I guess we should all grow up huh... I'm already losing connections with my past here n there, stifled by all the new commitments in uni. But still, am happy for Christl, Lionel and all the others going over =) Cheers, and till I write again...

2008-02-03T02:08:00.000+08:00

Its late so I'll just do a short one.

Hallplay's over, just like that. My contribution was quite different from the majority of the others. Two weeks of scrambling over tickets, staying in the dining hall watching the sun go down, sitting in science fac trying not to poke my eye out on the wooden figurine next to our stall.

Two days of freezing in the foyer of UCC with aching legs directing traffic and threatening to stab people with plastic spoons. For some of the bolder people who tried to steal food, I really should have, senior or not. Greedy people, are they that desperate?

And pretty much a year of working with the Ticketing Department which underwent major personnel changes over the course of hallplay. Its been great working with Hong Ju, Yue Zhi, Yong Jun, Priyanka and even Qin Yi whom I just got to know in the last two days, such have been the extent to which our shifts have been pulled.

Sometimes I still wish I had gotten into my first choice committee. I wish that I had known my dates clearer, but I suppose that department head couldn't afford to take risks. I would have liked to be in production. After all, I've always liked to be active and being inactive while others are busy makes me feel kinda uncomfortable. It was not just once did someone make a scathing/patronizing, although maybe accidental, remark about Ticketing's contributions to hallplay, that made me feel like lashing out, even though the person might have meant no harm.

But NEVER once did I regret getting into Ticketing. Ticketing was small, short of manpower, and I'm glad I could contribute to it, and to its members. I've definitely made new friends in hall through all the sitting around behind the stall and complaining about the lack of activity to each other =D

And we did what we set out to do, according to the seniors. We didn't get a full house, but we still did better than we expected to.

I'll never forget the day where we sat in the Meeting Room till 2 in the morning talking about things both serious and not, nor will I forget coming back from UCC, science canteen, or where have you, HongJu carrying programme booklets, Yue Zhi carrying the box, and I my LAW tube(also known as a standing banner hoho)

My hallplay experience was not a classic one per se, having never actually seen the performance before in its entirety, or helped out directly in the production. I only can associate such things as cold, walkie talkies and penguin suits with it. Neither can I say that I felt any exhiliration at its completion like the production side. It was just a job that I completed. But still, it was fulfilling.

Photos to be collected and posted in the near future maybe =) and all the best to XQRJ

2008-02-02T01:12:00.000+08:00

For me, my fencing is back to basics. I must start fencing in a more basic style again. With the lack of training, my fencing has really atrophied. And where last time when I'm inside my opponents blade, everyone knew the other feller had no chance, now my close quarters land all over the place. During FSC I really committed all the mistakes I tell my juniors not to make.

Guess it should be back to the standard lock and disengages, both foil and epee. Oh, and the flick for epee hoho... That remains a most interesting variable to play about with.

Had a satisfying training with my VJ juniors on wednesday. Some of them have improved somemore, but must go further than that if they want to challenge A-division. This year the other JCs really have strong fencers.. Still, if we follow the rule that fencers make their own luck, anything can happen. Ren Ying for one scored 3 points on me in a 5 point bout cos my lock was ultra-ineffective...

I can't deny that this is the strongest girls' team ever fielded by VJ, but there's still room for improvement!! I wish they were allowed bladework in school...

And AHH I don't know whether I should go to Selangor!!

Anyway, hallplay #1 just went off today.. Quite fun ushering cos today a lot of M1s went to watch... But so busy were Hazel and I in chasing some KEVIIans into UCC that we missed the VIP until Zichun came out and told me "hey, he's here!" Besides which everything went smoothly.

But didn't get to watch the performance, sigh. Pity, I heard it was very good, according to the likes of Ray, Joella and all. At the end of the day, FOH is pretty unglam huh... Tomorrow we're bringing our own camera to take photos haha...

Well, should be pushing off now... Goodnight. Am already in the throes of incoherence.

2008-01-31T22:23:00.000+08:00

Been a hectic week. Little sleep and a lot of hallplay. Ticketing jumped enormously in the last week, but I still hope its enough.

Hallplay's tomorrow already! Am not doing anything big like the cast, but am usher IC means I get to lead half a section worth of people in directing people around in UCC (and ensuring they don't barge into someone else's performance). All the best to Melody, Jeevan, Arshvin et al in the performance!

Its also been a week of sleeping late, what with Ami's birthday celebration, and another night after hallplay final briefing sitting in the meeting room with Hongju and YueZhi talking about ticketing, our different faculties, CCAs, etcetc (Since we had one medic, one engin and one biz student, it proved to be quite an interesting evening).

Well, see how things go. Soccer IHG's coming up this week!

2008-01-26T20:38:00.000+08:00

FSC was almost a flop. My conclusion is that my stop hit / timing hits are above average but my technique's really quite lousy.

Won half the bouts in round robin, but the three I won was my own teammate, a short tanglin guy and a PRC feller who wanted to go home early. Had a fun bout with WuJie, in which he flicked me on the edge of my electric vest at my neck while I was lunging. So now I have a crick neck and a headache. Nuts. But I managed to pull one back doing an epee six-eight lock hoho.. Rocks man...

DE was bad. Fencing against this guy from Duxton and within 15 seconds I had already scored one through the hidden blade attack, and I already knew that I had the capacity in me somewhere to thrash him. But with my fingers suffering from a very shiong week of handball, I just couldn't manipulate my blade fast enough to get my timing correct. In the end lost quite narrowly like 15-12 or something darn.

But oh well. I hope next weekend goes better.

2008-01-26T01:03:00.000+08:00

A great yet a sad day.

Some things happened that made my heart bleed (I wanted to use the word "fibrillate" but people wouldn't like it). I promise myself, I will never ever do that thing to other people, and I really hope I can keep my promise to myself.

Handball was what made today happy =) Not the result. We lost 24-12 cos we were too nervous. My goalkeeping was not that worthy of mention, though Hendrik said that his most vivid memory of this year's IHG was me leaping off the line to deny the point blank shot of the Eusoff second man, and so taking a knee to the descending colon. But I kept my promise to Eric about defending the goal at all costs. Well, almost.

But I made two mistakes I shouldn't have. Diving too early, being disoriented by the ricocheting shots, being inflexible and not coming out in the first half.

So, having saved two impossible shots, and committing two mistakes, my PERSONAL score is 2-2. If I manage to stay in hall, I will improve the ratio!

But I was very very grateful that ChiaHui, Matilda, Rebecca and Beatrice from M1 came down to support =) I didn't know they came down (my eyesight is notoriously bad in the evening), and that was probably for the best, so I didn't get too nervous or anything, but their appearance at the end of the match really made my day! Its really the first time anyone (outside my very supportive family) has come down specifically to support me in any event! To me it was so "whoa!", so thank you all so much!

And also, Hendrik, a senior and our team manager, took me aside and told me that he was impressed at my performance in the match. That meant a lot to me too, cos I had been very depressed at the end of the event initially. Its this kinda thing which makes you want to stay on and play handball for KE for all 5 years haha =)

Till then I shall sleep first... FSC tomorrow!

2008-01-25T01:04:00.000+08:00

Long time no update. That's cos, other than a very tiring handball match against RH (see the KE blog), nothing much has happened... Been running around, doing ticketing, training, and squeezing in work here and there.. I'm very behind in physio, but anat's still ok...

Am not too sure what to make out of my new tutor, but seems to be pretty ok =) Am sure we got the long end of the stick...

The next two days will be interesting. A close fight against EH handball tomorrow then FSC on saturday... IF I play tomorrow I hope I don't do anything stupid. Keep thinking about the two events throughout school =Pp though I should be concentrating on my studies...

Oh yea, got a new FS blade =) ultra light and flicky, but at the moment I can't flick anyway cos of my injured DIPs...

K PBL later today. Shall sleep first..

2008-01-21T00:02:00.000+08:00

Am feeling rather melancholy now. Not outright depressed, but a feeling of "urghhh".

The weekend was not what it could have been.. But I'm thankful for handball that has trained my catching. All through the soccer warmup whenever a high ball flew my way I was telling myself "Itsahandball itsahandball" and voila! I didn't spill any shots yay. But, like I expected, no one really noticed. Hmmm. Didn't play either. It was nice to have the experience and it was nice to see KE thrash the other team (which wasn't very good), but somehow... Being there in the afternoon to help people carry water and to loan out my gloves isn't very nice.

Still, I know if I keep my head, if Terence and Long Wu get their body parts knocked off in the course of IHG, I know I can keep KE's goal alive. I guess I knew it ever since the M1 friendly at Woodlands, when my other two keepers couldn't come. That was my best game of my life. Every catch went ok, I ran out at the correct times, even managed to smother loose balls at the opponent's feet. I know somewhere in there I have the "right idea". Just need confidence.

And Novices are over. Am happy for SMU =) I'm glad I didn't have to eat my epee like I told Jonah. I'm glad that I vindicated my treatment of Cephas in A-div two years ago, although I think I may have been the only person to remember. I think the CJC seniors did too.

And I'm proud of VJ's girls' team. They worked hard I know. Maybe not as crazily as Maurice, but they did put in a lot of effort, even coming for the epee camp. It was well worth my saliva cheering them on and teaching them. Maybe some have given up on VJ, but with them I can't. Well, not yet anyway. It was fine to see them turn the tables on X-JC at the last minute and then stage a near comeback against an experienced ABF team.

But somewhere in me, I also know that they definitely had the same or even greater amount of potential than some of the medallists, but potential untapped and undiscovered. They knew what to do, but not how to go about doing it. I know with the correct resources, permission and support they would go even farther. It wouldn't be too much to expect a medal of them next year. It kinda pains the heart to see them walk away without anything this competition.

Being allowed to do bladework in school, being allowed to train in an alloted area, even being allowed to fence under the school's name, are liberties which many other institutions take for granted. But, like two years ago, some people in authority are blind to the fact that fighting without acknowledgement or even simply moral support is heart breaking. It was to me. It still is.

They deserve better. Dear God, help me to be able to help them somehow.

IHG tomorrow. Am starting for KE against RH in handball. Let us win, if we cannot win, let us be brave in our attempt.